TOURISM:Tunisia-France: strengthening tourism cooperation and identifying new markets

[Kris]

Promoting greater Tunisian-French cooperation in the field of tourism, taking advantage of the agreement signed in 2003, and develop new markets, these were the main items of the meeting on Monday 11th of february in Tunis, by M. Lajimi Khelil, Minister of Tourism and Luc Chatel, Secretary of State at the french minister of the Economy, Finance and Employment, which is responsible for the consumption and tourism.

The two officials who signed, during a press conference, the report of the working meeting which was held previously between Tunisian-French and ended in an agreement to accelerate the implementation of the various clauses of the contracts about tourism cooperation signed between the two countries in 2003 and locate it in a better position to gain new markets, in order to enable the Tunisian tourism industry to face international competition and improve its performance.

With regard to the professional training, it was decided to strengthen bilateral cooperation to modernize the training programme of the ONTT (national Tunisian office of tourism).


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[jools]

Hi Kris,

This will be a great stepping stone for Tunisia because I think Tunisia does still lack the international recognition & acceptance to be a potential tourist destination & therefore they are not gaining the international markets that they so rightly deserve, which automatically creates the competition, investment and boosts their tourism globally.
However, I do feel that a higher degree of cooperation & training between both countries is absolutely vital & in my opinion is well overdue, because at present Tunisia's advertising & lack of training does let them down internationally. There is simply not enough advertising nor training, & the advertising that is being presented to promote Tunisia is not in any means sophiscated enough to promote them & place them on an international scale to achieve new markets. Although with the New York Times ranking them as the third best destination in the world to visit this year, & beating many other exotic destinations will certainly make many people stop, think & hopefully discover Tunisia, whether its purely through curiousity, who cares, it will definitely help to create that recognition & acceptance that they still seem to lack. The New York Times article was a wonderful piece of advertising for their industry, but they still need far more training, but hopefully with this agreement being implemented between both countries, this in time will help to finally make a stand in new markets & place Tunisia on the map internationally.