Tunisia-Rene Trabelsi meets UK Tourism Minister Helen Whately

Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts Rene Trabelsi met his British counterpart UK Tourism Minister Helen Whately and the Tunisian Ambassador to the UK to discuss the importance of the tourism sector at WTM London on 4 November.
In an exclusive interview accorded to Travel Trade Gazette at WTM,Trabelsi said that Cook’s collapse in September was a big opportunity for the country, particularly in the UK and Europe where he said it was ready to expand its operations in Tunisia and the likes of Jet2holidays and newcomer easyJet Holidays potentially in line to pick up some of Cook’s capacity.

Trabelsi also emphasised Tunisia was highly competent of rotating throughout rising markets to capture new tourist capacity, with the country “very much near” its nine million arrivals target for 2019.

He cited Russia as a particularly strong example; tourist numbers, said Trabelsi, have grown from around 100,000 in 2016 to 625,000 last year, with Tunisia expecting to welcome in excess of 725,000 Russian visitors this year.

Trabelsi said the UK had “shown its capacity for resilience” following the 2015 Sousse terror attack, with annual visitor numbers already having recovered to some 200,000. “The UK has big interest in Tunisia,” he said.

Trabelsi said the pace of the operator’s collapse came as a huge shock. “People are raising the question, ’why did the UK let it down?’,” said the minister, adding private hoteliers were hit particularly hard, many having invested heavily in achieving Cook’s standards of service, security and hygiene.

“We have meetings with tour operators and airlines though,” said Trabelsi. “It’s all in the pipeline. The collapse of Thomas Cook is opening doors to other tour operators because at one point, Thomas Cook was demanding exclusivity from hotels, blocking other operators.”

Trabelsi added that while Tunisia wasn’t yet setting its sights far beyond nine million tourist arrivals annually, it would seek to increase the quality of these holidays and broaden its appeal to a higher standard of holidaymaker.

These efforts will include developing new quality markers across its hotel and restaurant sectors, on which it has worked with Abta, and reducing its reliance on single-use plastics, among other environmental ambitions.

Marriott, Four Seasons, Radisson, Accor and The Ritz are also among the hotel grounds and brands “coming back” to Tunisia, according to Trabelsi.