Category: business

China’s outbound travel market raked up 130 million trips in 2017, a 7% increase on 122 million trips recorded in 2017. Thailand and Japan continue to be the two hottest outbound destinations. But with more flight connections, better exchange rates and fewer visa restrictions, destinations such as Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia are seeing a huge growth in visitors from China. The figures are highlighted in a Ctrip 2017 China Outbound Tourism Travel Report compiled with the  China Tourism Academy (CTA), a specialised institute under China National Tourism Administration. Recognised as…

Tunisia’s public debt reached, at the end of December 2017, 69.9% of GDP against 61.9% in 2016, according to the December 2017 Public Debt Monthly Brochure posted by the Finance Ministry on its website. In terms of value, outstanding public debt rose from 55 921.5 MD (million dinars) for the whole of 2016 to 68,073.7 MD at the end of December 2017. The external debt stood in December 2017 at 46,785.1 MD (48.04% of GDP). It includes 50% of multilateral debts, 14% of bilateral debts and 36% of debts contracted…

A new business incubator specialising in new technologies, on Friday, opened at the Higher Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (ISTIC) of Borj Cedria, TAP reports. This incubator will provide to young higher education graduates wishing to create companies the mechanisms of support, training, coaching and assistance. At the opening ceremony chaired by Slim Khalbous, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Slim Feriani, Minister of Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), a cooperation agreement was signed between the two ministries and other agreements related to the establishment…

Tunisia’s water utility, SONEDE, has shared details of recently completed and future desalination projects, including groundwater and seawater plants. The utility is poised to open a 50,000 m3/d capacity seawater desalination plant at Djerba in 2018, at a cost of TND 180 million ($74 million). Two more seawater desalination plants, at Gabes, costing TND 200 million ($82 million), and Sfax, with a price tag of TND 900 million ($371 million) are in the planning stages. The details of the work were shared by SONEDE president and director general Mosbah Helali,…

Thomas Cook has launched more regional flights to Tunisia as part of its summer 2019 programme, launching on Thursday (March 1). Cook has announced additional regional flying for the launch of summer 2019, with new flights and holidays from Cardiff and Belfast to Tunisia and the extension of Manchester to Marrakech, TTGmedia reports. Chris Mottershead, managing director at Thomas Cook UK, said: “We are delighted to be launching our summer 2019 holidays this early, with even more choice for our customers looking to travel further afield thanks to the addition…

The agriculture minister has urged French interprofessional organisation Interfel to support the development of a label for the Med region Tunisia’s Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Samir Taieb, has called on representatives of French trade association Interfel to work with their Tunisian counterparts to create a ‘Mediterranean label’, Eurofruit reports. During this week’s Paris International Agricultural Show, Taieb held talks with Interfel president Bruno Dupont, in the presence of Tunisia’s ambassador to France, Abdelaziz Rassaa, and representatives of various Tunisian interprofessional groups, the source noted. According to a…

Outbound visits by Chinese residents hit a record high of over 130 million in 2017, up 7 percent compared to 2016, making China the world’s biggest travel guest source country, according to a report released by the China Tourism Academy and the online travel service Ctrip on Thursday. Outbound travelers spent nearly $116 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent. China is regarded the largest traveler source for 10 countries including Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, Maldives, Indonesia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea…

Moody’s said in a new report published Wednesday that “the high level of problem loans in Tunisia will continue to weigh on the credit profiles of the country’s banks,” stressing that liquidity conditions will also be challenging. The rating agency’s report is an update to the markets and does not constitute a rating action. Moody’s estimated that the credit growth in Tunisia will remain elevated at around 8%-10%, fueled by recovering economic growth of 2.8% compared with 2.3% in 2017, “in a context of declining domestic savings.” Foreign investment in…

Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines Mustapha Guitouni said that his country is considering exporting electricity to Libya through Tunisia. “Algeria is in the process of preparing the necessary studies to examine the possibility of exporting electricity to Libya through the Tunisian territories,” Guitouni said in response to a question from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. Libya suffers from power shortages caused by the destruction of a number of electricity plants, while Algeria is trying to boost its foreign exports to increase its balance of foreign currency. The minister added that the two…

The Tunisian authorities are interested in increasing the tourist flow from Russia and expect that up to 600,000 Russians can visit the country by the end of this year, Tunisian Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts Salma Elloumi Rekik told TASS on Tuesday in the run-up to her working visit to Moscow. “We expect to receive from 550,000 to 600,000 Russian tourists in 2018, which is a 6-percent increase compared to last year,” she said. “We have all the resources that are necessary to achieve that goal.” According to the minister,…