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Tunisia : Fewer tourists after terrorist attacks

September 22, 2015

Official sources in Tunis say there are one million foreign tourists less who have visited the country in the first eight months of 2015.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GadY
Tourism in Tunisia, Copyright: picture alliance / M. Amine Ben Aziza
Image: picture-alliance/AA/M. Amine Ben Aziza

In June, an Islam extremist shot 38 people dead in a hotel in Sousse. Three months before the attack, 21 vacationers were killed during a massacre at the Bardo museum in Tunis. "Islamic State" has claimed responsibility for both attacks. As a result, a number of hotels in Tunisia closed, as bookings dropped heavily.

Following the attack in Sousse, Denmark and Britain both issued warnings against visiting Tunisia. Germany did not follow suit. Many German vacationers however decided to change their plans and book holidays elsewhere.

The Tunisian Tourism Ministry says some four million tourists visited the country between January and September 2015, one million less than in the same period in 2014.The number of European tourists dropped by a total of 50 per cent following the attacks.

Tourism is one of the main pillars of the Tunisian economy. Some 400,000 people work in the tourist industry. Tourism slumped after Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was deposed in 2011, but was slowly recovering when the terrorist attacks occurred.

ks/pw (dpa, reuters)