Conventional advertising campaigns “are extremely expensive and you’re not sure of their impact; it’s very long term. Tunisia has only limited means,” explained Karboul, whose government has a very short-term mandate.
Appointed in late January to end months of political uncertainty, it is due to step down after elections held by the end of this year.
– Changing perceptions –
Already it has had to deal with the fallout from an incident involving a group of Israeli tourists on a cruise ship who were barred from disembarking at Tunis, with the US-based cruise operator saying it would no longer call at Tunisian ports in protest.
Karboul insisted the case had nothing to do with discrimination, saying merely that there was a problem with the Israelis’ visas.
Before the revolution, Tunisia managed to project an image of itself as an attractive holiday destination in the southern Mediterranean, concealing the ruthlessness of the regime in power that was finally overthrown in the first Arab Spring uprising in 2011.
Many had hoped to see tourism rebound last year, but those hopes were dashed with the separate assassinations of two secular politicians in attacks that sparked political upheaval and fears of further jihadist violence.
Even so, tourism receipts rose by a modest 1.7 percent to 3.23 billion dinars (1.5 billion euros/$2.1 billion) from 2012, although they were 8.3 percent off the figure from 2010.
Karboul said the country “is already safer,” adding that growth was starting to recover in Europe, Tunisia’s main tourism market.
One of the ministry’s objectives is to promote destinations away from the coast, which have previously attracted little attention.
“The coast is there, but we’re trying to get out the fact that each region has its own character,” Karboul said.
Last month, several thousand people got a taste of the diverse tourist attractions on offer, at “Electronic Dunes,” a desert music festival held in the southern desert.
Karboul acknowledged that Tunisia’s image had to reflect realities, and that certain services needed to be improved to boost tourism, such as rubbish collection, which has been repeatedly disrupted by the social protests and strikes since the revolution.
