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Tourism revenues in Tunisia increased by 23% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2017, as the industry gradually recovered from the two major attacks on foreign holidaymakers in 2015.

Tourism Minister, Salma Loumi, estimated in March that the number of foreign visitors to Tunisia could reach a record eight million this year.

“Revenues increased by 23%, from 371 million dinars (124 million euros) in the first three months of 2017 to 457 million dinars (153 million euros) in the first quarter of 2018,” said the Ministry of Tourism in a statement.

The tourism sector represents around 8% of Tunisia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The major European tour operators have resumed sending holidaymakers to Tunisia this year, after having shunned the country because of the attack on a beach in Sousse, where 38 tourists, including 30 British, had died on 26 June 2015, and also after that at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, where 21 tourists had died on 18 March 2015.

In February, Thomas Cook sent British tourists to Tunisia for the first time since the attack in Sousse.

Source: tourism-review.com