While Tunisia remains a popular tourist destination, occupying 29th spot on the World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) list of the top 40 destinations worldwide, the country is launching development strategies to help the sector adapt to a rapidly changing global market.
Tunisia has successfully attracted tourists for years by taking advantage of its image as an affordable beach getaway. The tourism sector employs more than 400,000, contributes 6.5% of GDP and supplies a significant amount of foreign currency earnings. However, facing fierce competition, the country must defend its competitive advantage in order to ensure the sector's sustainability.
Over a million French citizens visited the country over the first eight months of 2010, followed by 330,312 Germans and 295,701 Italians. The highest increase though was among tourists from Great Britain, Scandinavia and Russia, with 28.9%, 30.5% and 46.3% more respectively compared to last year. The rate of summertime visits from neighbouring countries has remained relatively high, despite the holy month of Ramadan falling in August.
However, local media recently noted that while overnight stays in Tunisia increased from 27.28 million in 2009 to 28.07 million in 2010, tourism receipts fell by 18.5% over the first eight months of this year compared to the last, from €1.3bn in 2009 to €1.1bn in 2010.
Recognizing the need to improve its position and image as a tourist destination, the government recently commissioned a strategic study on prospects for growth in the tourism sector by 2016 from Roland Berger International, a German audit company.
The study, released in October, said the Tunisian tourism sector is being challenged by recent trends, which include the changing profile of consumers (who are becoming on average older), advances in technology such as online booking, and the emergence of new types of accommodation such as boutique hotels.
Diversity and innovation, advertising, promotion and marketing, legislative framework and a re-financing of the industry all need particular attention, said Roland Berger. The consultancy firm also said Tunisia should improve the range and quality of tourism services, stimulate demand and step-up competitiveness, as well as adopt a better advertising strategy. Tunisia last year spent €27m on advertising while Morocco spent €49m and Turkey €82m.
In keeping with recommendations that Tunisia place a premium on quality, the government has started to upgrade infrastructure and improve vocational training centres. New standards have been adopted for grading hotels. In 2010, after 6439 controls were carried out, 156 hotels were downgraded and 16 obtained an additional star. Hotel training centres have been renovated. In addition, the teaching program at such schools will anticipate changes in the sector; their management, meanwhile, will be left increasingly to tourism professionals.
According to Minister Tlatli, Tunisia plans to become "a destination that can provide an upscale product," catering to "international visitors who wish to enjoy a cultural offer that cannot easily be found at the same level at competing destinations".
The strategic study also focuses on the need for better marketing. To that effect, Mr. Tlatli highlights the need for "regional promotion" and "a better understanding of markets, so as to develop a suitable product for each market." The government has worked on developing cultural, environmental, wellness and sports tourism, as these can cope with the strong seasonality of Tunisian tourism, concentrated between May and October. Efforts have also been undertaken by the government to boost tourism to the Saharan region with the opening of two direct flights from Tozeur, in the south-west of the country, to Milan and Madrid.
Meanwhile, the Tunisian National Tourism Office (Office National du Tourisme Tunisien, ONTT) will undergo a major restructuring. One part of the ONTT will deal with promotion and tourism marketing while the other will specialize in vocational training in tourism.
The tourism ministry has predicted that these and other reforms will help the country welcome 10m tourists per year by 2015, last year there were over 7m arrivals. Though the target is ambitious if Tunisia can accentuate its mix of North African charm and European sophistication, it stands a good chance of meeting it.
© Oxford Business Group 2010
