Tunisia’s tourist attendance increased significantly in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism, sign of a recovery after several difficult years following the revolution.
The number of arrivals at the borders of this North African country amounted to 3.2 million over the first six months of the year, up 26% compared to the first half of 2017.
The number of tourists exceeds even the 2.9 million recorded over this period in 2010, reference year for Tunisian tourism.
These figures mark a remarkable recovery after several difficult years due to the instability that followed the fall of the dictatorship in 2011, and the 2015 attacks against the Bardo Museum in Tunis and a hotel in the seaside resort of Sousse on the Mediterranean coast.
Revenues in this key sector of the Tunisian economy exceeded 1.2 billion dinars (420 million euros) for the first half of the year, up 46% year-on-year, and returned to a level comparable to that of 2010 (1.3 billion dinars).
The dinar has nevertheless suffered a significant depreciation in the last two years, trading at more than three dinars the euro, against about two in 2010.
On the other hand, the number of overnight stays remained well below what it was before the revolution, at 7.9 million overnight stays for the period from 1 January to 20 June. This is 39% more than for the same period in 2017 according to the Ministry, but it remains well below the 13.6 million overnight stays recorded in 2010 for the first half of the year as a whole.
A jihadist attack that cost the lives of six Tunisian police officers last Sunday at the Algerian border, although far from the coast, has raised fears for the resumption of tourism, encouraged by a security calm in the last two years.