Article Sur tourisme en Tunisie

                                 
                                               

                                 Tunisia      Tourisme

This sector is popular mainly on the east coast, totaling more than 95% of beds. The following is a list of the largest resorts and the percentge of nights out of the total:

• Sousse-Monastir-Mahdia (36%)
• Nabeul-Hammamet (24%)
• Djerba-Zarzis (40%)
• Tunis-Zaghouan (10%)
• Tabarka-Aïn Draham (2%)

History

According to Garrett Nagle in his book Advanced Geography, Tunisia's tourist industry "benefits from its Mediterranean location and its tradition of low cost package holidays from Western Europe."^[2] The development of tourism dates back to 1960 through the joint efforts of government and private groups. In 1962, tourism, with 52,000 entries and 4,000 beds, had a revenue of two million dollars and becomes the main source of foreign exchange in the country.^[3] However, it is not popular with American tourists who are wary of Middle East destinations since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.^[2]

Until recently, Tunisia's main attraction was on its northeast coastline around Tunis; however, the Seventh National Development Plan of 1989 created several new tourist areas including the resort at Port-el-Kantaoui.^[2] The tourism sector now represents 6.5% of Tunisia's GDP and provides 340,000 jobs of which 85,000 are direct jobs, or 11.5% of the working population with a high share of seasonal employment.

France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are the four traditional tourist markets, though Tunisia lost roughly 500,000 tourists from Germany after 9/11.^[4] From 2003-2004, it regained tourists, and 2007 saw arrivals increasing by 3 percent over that of 2006.^[4]