Tourist arrivals down 35.4 % in tunis

Tourists' arrivals posted during the first 9 months of the current year an alarming drop of 35.4% compared with the same period last year, declining from 5.2 million tourists to 3.3 million. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Trade and Tourism, over 15.7 million bed-nights have been recorded in Tunisian hotels from last January 1 to September 20, that is a fall of 43.2% compared with the previous year. This downward trend had negative financial repercussions with a 39.4-pc decrease in tourism revenues ( 1 520 million dinars in 2011). Tunisia numbers 850 hotels with a total accommodation capacity of over  246 000 beds, 600 travel agencies and 8 public training institutes.