The project contributes to diversifying and improving the competitiveness of Tunisian tourism by encouraging the development of new approaches to local tourism management and new regional tourism brands.
Tourism accounts for 14% of national GDP and faces many structural and profound challenges. Tunisian tourism urgently needs reforms and measures to improve its positioning and added value in a competitive and increasingly segmented global market. Limited to a few coastal regions and heavily dependent on foreign tourism organizations, the sector is struggling to develop new offerings, while the country has real potential in terms of both product diversification and tourism regions.
In order to contribute to the diversification of Tunisian tourism, at least four new DMO (Destination Management Organisation) will be set up for the management of tourist destinations according to a methodology developed by Swisscontact. These organizations will ultimately form an integral part of the Tunisian tourism system.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and the National Tourism Board, the project selected the Tunis-Carthage, Zaghouan, Le Kef and Mahdia destinations, in particular because of their diversity, their tourist characteristics and the dynamism of the actors involved.
These pilot DMOs, complement the existing DMOs managed in Djebel Dahar, Djerba and Ksar Ghilane under the SECO-funded Destinations South-East project. This makes it possible to develop and formalise the adaptability and functionality of the DMO concept in different regional contexts and to ensure its institutional and financial sustainability.
Swisscontact uses an inclusive approach involving tour operators, local public and private institutions, providers of ancillary and complementary activities and civil society actors, with particular attention to young people, women and small service providers.
The project also aims at developing marketing techniques for tourism through new marketing approaches and methods, in particular destination marketing with digital and participatory approaches.