Djerba, Tunisia - It's another sun-drenched day but the deckchairs of a four-star hotel on the island of Djerba stand empty, in a sign of the "catastrophic" summer on the horizon for Tunisian tourism.
"It's dead. It's all over for this year," was the blunt verdict from Adel Tarres, manager of the hotel on the holiday island off the south coast of Tunisia that has in past years been a magnet for tourists from Italy across the Mediterranean.
He had been counting on a "perfect" season and recruited an extra 25 staff to cater to tourists he hoped would be lured by the island's sandy beaches and whitewashed traditional houses.
But that was before jihadist gunmen attacked the Bardo national museum in Tunis on March 18 and mowed down 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.
Immediately, the Italian tour operator who had block-booked the 170-room hotel from May 1 right through to the end of October cancelled the reservation -- a loss estimated at 1.4 million euros ($1.6 million).
The tourism sector, which accounts for seven percent of Tunisia's GDP and almost 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, had already been rattled by political instability and rising Islamist violence since the 2011 revolution.
AFP
