UNWTO and Tunisia to hold International Conference on Mediterranean Tourism

“While the Mediterranean may be the most visited region in the world, with over 300 million tourist arrivals a year, it also faces numerous challenges; political, environmental and social,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. The conference in Djerba will offer an opportunity to take stock of tourism trends in the region, he said, and adopt a “shared vision” to adequately face these challenges.
 
“Tunisia is back and ready for a solid and sustained recovery; this conference could not take place in a better setting,”  added Mr. Rifai  when he met with  the Minister of Tourism of Tunisia, Elyes Fakhfakh.

Mr. Fakhfakh pointed to the significance of holding the conference in Tunisia, where tourism provides jobs and incomes for hundreds of thousands of people. “Tunisia has decided its leadership and, with the determination of its youth, has embarked on a new, dynamic future in which tourism is clearly a sector vital to growth,” he said.
 
The Mediterranean is one of the most important tourism regions in the world, accounting for approximately more than a third of total tourism revenues and half of international arrivals. For decades, the Mediterranean destinations have provided,  along with other attractions, the traditional sun, sand and sea product, essentially for the North and Eastern European  markets.
 
Tourism in Tunisia has seen a significant decline in tourism arrivals since the revolution over concerns about the country's  stability and strikes. Egypt and Libya have seen even more of a decline and Morocco which, although it has avoided the disruption  of revolution and regime change, has suffered from the effects of the Aragana cafe bomb and tourism is significantly down.However  the main problem is the global financal crisis and the eurzone crisis which involver high unemployment in particular and its  effects on travel budgets and  disposable incomes.

 Many European tourists are travelling less and staying at home.
 
The conference is a timely opportunity to consider the repositioning of the Mediterranean  region as a leading tourism  region wth both  sides of the Mediterranean rim playing their part. Indeed it implies a recognition that the European and the North African islamic countries need to come together to reaffirm their shared cultural heritage as an important  part of the tourism experience. The North African countries with their vibrant souks and rich culture both ancient and contemporary  are deeply attractive to many Europeans, as Taleb Rifai ,a former  Minister of tourism for Jordan knows well.
 
 The sun and the seaside are also attractive but as the Tunisian tourist authorities have recognised this is not enough to sustain tourism and it needs a far more imaginative approach. Endless new five star  hotels whilst necessary to ensure accommodation for the future are also not the anwser to the current crisis.The tourism  professionals on both sides of  the Mediterranean need to recognise this and not be locked into outdated patterns of tourism  development which do not respond to changes in tourism patterns and are not sustainable in today's economic climate.

 The challenge of the moment is to keep the European world and the islamic world together. The recent incident in France  when Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people three of them children and the ongoing arrests  of suspected islamic radicals has  struck a deep chord. The decline in tourism numbers in Tunisia and Morocco has seen a notable drop of tourists from France,  Spain  and Italy, the countries with the closest links to the Maghreb  with large populations of  North African islamic descent.The situatiuon in France President Sarkozy suggests, feels like America after  9/11.
 
The lessons of the recovery of tourism from the 9/11 horror need to be closely studied because the division of the islamic  and the western secular world has to be avoided.It needs to be remembered that as the first Gulf War broke out in 1991 the  West advised all its nationals to leave islamic countries, this fear of islam and terrorism predates 9/11.
 
 At the same time, the murder of 17 sleeping Afghan civilians while they slept by  US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales has outraged the islamic world as has the continuing deaths of Palestinians and  the repeated incidents of the desecration of the Koran. 

The terrorists like AQMI feed on this mutual anomosity but they cannot in the end determine the course of world events except by inflaming radical opinion on both sides and acting as a tipping point for conflict.

 Tourism has a major role to play in promoting understanding between peoples and the experts gathered in Djerba  in April will no doubt  reflect on this.