MTM: The crisis, an opportunity to clean up the activity

Europe has lost 20 million tourists following the crisis while the Mediterranean countries have recorded an increase of 1.5 million tourist arrivals, according to experts who took part in this conference.

Indeed, the crisis was not felt the same way in the southern countries of the Mediterranean as lower arrivals did not exceeds 0.55% in 2009.

Thus, Tunisia has experienced a decline in tourist arrivals, while marking an increase of foreign exchange earnings; and Morocco has experienced a rise in tourist arrivals coupled with lower revenues.

French experts have stressed that the crisis affects the tourism sector about every seven years, which must be taken into account in the strategies established for the sector.

A French tourism professional believes the crisis can be positive in the sense that it allows the cleaning of tourist activity from several negative aspects and bad practices of some operators including hoteliers and travel agencies. The crisis promotes the diversification of activity and promotion of an ecological, sustainable, and responsible tourism.