Tunisia targets UK with marketing campaign despite FCO warning
Tunisia is embarking on a tourism marketing campaign next week designed to reassure Brits that ‘life goes on’ and to make sure the UK doesn’t forget about it.
The campaign is running despite the Foreign Office still advising against all but essential travel to the country.
The warning was imposed after 30 British Thomson and First Choice customers were killed in a terror gun attack on a beach in the popular resort of Sousse in June 2015.
As a result, Tunisia has suffered a 90% drop in British visitors in the first four months of 2016 to just 5,980 visitors.
Running from Tuesday (May 31) to Saturday, a campaign will run simultaneously across five major European cities – London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, and Milan.
Graphics panels will be situated in carefully chosen locations in each city offering passers-by an insight into daily life in Tunisia.
They will show unedited footage from three iconic Tunisian locations – the resort of Hammamet, the picturesque town of Sidi Bou Said, and the desert landscape of Tozeur.
In London, the panel is displayed at the entrance to Old Spitalfields Market.
TNTO director Tarek Aouadi explained: "This campaign is intended to reassure people throughout Europe and to show them how life is going on in Tunisia in various different locations, all of which are significant for tourism.
"We would hate our friends in the UK to forget about Tunisia, and in fact many people tell us how much they are looking forward to visiting again once the FCO ban is lifted."
Earlier this week, Tunisia’s ambassador Nabil Ammar urged the British government to relax its travel warning, saying the destination was safe to visit.
Aouadi added: "We would never seek to undermine the British government advice, and we can’t tell exactly when it will change, but, of course, we are hoping that the time is getting closer for there to be a softening of the advice. Tunisia and the UK have been co-operating very closely on security matters and we are confident that this will show a positive result in the near future.
"Amongst the countries which do not have travel bans in place are some of our most significant markets such as France, Italy and Germany and tourists are gradually returning to Tunisia from these countries."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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