After tourists made headlong retreats from Tunisia after the revolution, the country mounted a muscular campaign to bring back visitors from its most immediate neighbour.
From a massive advertising campaign to journalist workshops and guided tours, Tunisia is on a mission to lure back Algerian tourists.
Almost a million Algerians visit their eastern neighbour every year, with 350,000 of them spending their summertime there.
What if they desert Tunisia this year?
The government is going on the offensive to reassure Algerians about the security situation in the wake of the revolution. Sixteen Algerian journalists visited Tunis April 4th-7th to witness the situation first-hand.
The trip was extensively covered by the Algerian media. During this visit, Tunisian Tourism Minister Mehdi Houas said in a statement reported by L'Expression, which dispatched a correspondent to Tunis, that "sea links between Algiers and Tunis are on the agenda".
The Algerian press focused on the enthusiasm of the Tunisian authorities, who are relying heavily on the brotherly ties between the two nations to support the Tunisian economy, which has been hit hard by falling tourism revenues.
"The journalists were invited to discover Tunisia as a destination so that they could write reports about various tourist resorts in the country," a journalist from Le Maghreb wrote April 9th.
This initiative is a "discreet appeal from the Tunisian authorities aimed at Algerian tourists," the journalist added.
Bassem Ouertani, regional tourism commissioner in Yasmine Hammamet, said in an interview with La Tribune that "recent events have had repercussions that may be described as negative on tourism on Tunisia".
The authorities in the region organised an "educational tour" for about 40 Algerian travel agencies from the central, eastern and western regions of the country to visit Yasmine Hammamet and Hammamet, Ouertani said. They also held a "workshop in Monastir which was attended by Algerian and Tunisian tourism workers".
In addition, he announced that the tourism minister "will make a visit to Algeria in due course".
But things will not stop here. In a further bid to restore confidence among Algerian tourists, the authorities are planning to launch a promotional campaign backed by a hefty budget of 60 million Tunisian dinars. The effort will be worth it, because according to the Tunisian tourism minister, in the course of just two months, "the Algerian market has contracted by 33%".
The programme comprises several aspects, including an advertising campaign in the Algerian media. Tunisian representatives will attend tourism fairs in Algiers and Oran on April 12th and April 24th. The Annaba-Hammamet rally is also in the pipeline.
Nevertheless, some Algerians remain unsure if they are ready to resume their visits to Tunisia.
Amina Dilmi is among them. Hammamet has become her favourite summertime destination over the past five years. With two months left before the holiday season, she "hasn't booked yet" and prefers "to wait to see how things pan out".
Selimi, who owns a travel agency in Algiers, confirmed this trend. Tourists' hesitation forced him to focus on other destinations such as Morocco.
"I'm usually fully booked at this time of the year, but that's not the case this time around," he said.
© Magharebia.com 2011
