São Paulo – Tunisia is hosting the 4th International Conference on Tourism and Communication next November. Sponsored by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the event is regarded by the organization’s officials and Tunisian authorities as a chance to regain the trust of foreign tourists in the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in the country.
The decision to host the conference was announced last weekend by the Tunisian minister of Tourism and Handicraft, Salma Rekik. She signed an agreement with the WTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai, after the decision to have the event was made at the WTO General Assembly, taking place in Colombia until September 17th with 1,500 tourism industry leaders and government officials from 135 countries.
Tunisia was the country where the revolutionary Arab Spring movement first erupted, in 2010, leading to the ousting of then-dictator Zine Al-Abdine Ben Ali, and a transition into a democratic government. Ben Ali had been in power since 1987 and the transitional process in Tunisia is regarded as one of the most successful of all Arab countries.
But in the first half of this year, two terrorist attacks have damaged the economic recovery process the Arab country had been in, after a new government was put in place. The first attack happened in March this year at the Bardo National Museum, in Tunis, and claimed 22 lives; the second one took place in June, at a hotel in Sousse where 38 people were killed, most of them British tourists.
Tourism, a major source of revenue for the country, has felt the blow. The Tunisian Ministry of Tourism and Handicraft reported that tourist arrivals fell 38.1% between January 1st and August 20th from the comparable period in 2010, before the Arab Spring began. European tourist arrivals dropped the most, at 59% from 2010 and 29.2% from a year ago.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
