Lifestyle

Tunisia launches plan to recover, transform and boost tourism

Tunisia, 6 June, EFE, (Camera: Natalia Román).- Spurred by its inclusion in the top post-Covid-19 era destinations in Forbes magazine, Tunisia has embarked on a plan to transform and promote a sector that is key to its fragile economy which has been mired in a stubborn crisis since 2015. FOOTAGE OF THE TUNISIAN RESORT AND SOUNDBITES OF NOUREDDINE BEYRAKDAR, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE HOTEL "CARLTON", OF LOFTI HAMADI, HEAD OF THE "ROOFTOP" RESTAURANT OF THE HOTEL DAR EL JELD, AS WELL AS NEJI BEN SADOK, OWNER OF THE CLUB "GOA PRIVATE BEACH". Translation Nouredinne Beyrakdar, general manager of the Carlton Hotel:1.- "The complicated thing is above all to train the staff who are not used to distance, to certain ways of behaving and receiving the clientele, to avoid contact that is expected from the hotel and restaurant trade, which is a warm environment. Now it's almost cold". Translation Lofti Hamadi, head of the Azotea restaurant at the Dar El Jeld hotel:1.- "Local tourism has always been a missed opportunity, we have looked too much abroad and not enough locally, even though Tunisians are great consumers, lovers of good food. The strategy needs to be redirected towards local tourism. As I always say, it's better to have cash registers full of dinars than empty currency safes." Translation Neji Ben Sadok, owner of the Goa Private Beach club:1. "We need tourists who spend their money here and don't just stay in the hotel. Our problem, a huge problem, is that from the moment the tourists arrive at the hotel, they are locked up and offered everything! You tell them: be careful that they don't steal from you, be careful that they don't do anything to you... And you see that they have been to Tunisia four times, they come from Germany or wherever, but when you ask them what they know about Tunisia they tell you: the airport, the Hammamet motorway and the hotel".