Tunisia’s tourism in need of an Arab Spring break

ENAR

In the aftermath of the Tunisian revolution two years ago there was hope that the end of the Ben Ali regime might provide an opportunity for a makeover of the country’s tourism industry. It was time, some said, for Tunisia to move away from its reliance on the ‘cheap-and-cheerful’ package holiday — a  model that dated back to the 1970s, when visitors were cantoned away at beach resorts and had little interaction with locals. The medium-term goal, it was argued, should be to attract more higher-spending visitors to a wider range of holidays and activities, from trips to view desert wildlife to business conferences. As in other areas of the economy a combination of domestic and international factors is slowing progress. World Bank economists advising the country’s transitional government discovered that banks had lent heavily to financial investors in beach-side hotels who often had little vocation or incentive to grow