São Paulo – The Tunisian tourism revenues saw a year-on year 37.7% increase till May 10, according to information published this Friday (17) by Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) based on statistics from Tunisia’s Tourism and Handicrafts Ministry. The value reached DT 1.2 billion (USD 386.8 million). Tunisia seeks to host 9 million tourists this year against 8 million in 2018.
The total number of arrivals at the borders was up 14.5%, to 2.4 million tourists. The European entries rose by 22.2%, reaching 512,775 tourists, with French tourists in the lead with over 244,000 tourists. The goal is to reach 1 million French tourists by the end of this year.
German tourists come second with 54.3 thousand visitors, a 23% rise. Tunisia seeks to host 400,000 German tourists during 2019 and to increase this number to 1 million visitors in the forthcoming years. The arrivals of other European nationalities reached 214,3 thousand persons, up 25.8%.
Maghreb tourists are still in the lead at the level of border crossings. Maghreb region is composed of Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Mauritania, as well as Tunisia. Tourists from these countries reached 1.4 million (up 12.5%). Algerian tourists reached the highest number among them. A total of 776,073 tourists have visited the country till May 10, up 12.5%, 25% of whom stayed in hotels.
In the coastline with the Mediterranean Sea, Djreba-Zarzis tourist area ranks first in terms of best overnight stays. Out of 4.8 million overnight stays of non-residents, the region accounted for 19%, 1.1 million. It was followed by Sousse and Yasmine Hammamet.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda