dossier sur le tourisme et le développement durable

Tourist flows
last decade has been marked by the arrival of many tourists from Central and Eastern Europe,
whose demand is similar to that of the Western Europeans with the difference that their
purchasing power is not as high and that they use coaches more often and have the
requirements and practices of « primo-tourists » 1 .
International tourism from bordering countries demonstrates characteristics that situate it
between medium and long distance tourism and domestic tourism. These tourists use private
accommodation such as holiday homes or they are accommodated by friends or relatives, and
they also rent apartments and villas. They mainly use their car to get to the destination and to
get around once there. This type of tourism has existed for a long time in Europe but is more
recent in the Arabian countries. For example, out of a total of 1.5 million foreign trips by
Tunisians, 39% travelled to Libya, 8% to Morocco and 3% to Algeria (Tunisian national tourist
office).
Tourism by nationals resident abroad probably makes up a non negligible proportion of the
visits to these countries that have a tradition of emigration. In 1999 this type of tourist made up
18% of the international arrivals in Tunisia, 30% in Egypt, 38% in Morocco and 81% in Algeria,
with a more seasonal annual distribution than other international tourists. They more often than
not use private accommodation and the boat or car to get to their destination. This special type
of tourism is not well assessed in the countries’ statistics. It demonstrates characteristics similar
to those of domestic tourism but with higher purchasing power. The descendants of second or
third generation immigrants who return to their original home country add to this phenomenon.
Frame 1: Intra-Arabian tourism, flows for which there are fewer statistics
The development of intra-Arabian tourism is the result of several factors: economic growth in the
Maghreb and the Mashrek that tightens links and increases economic cooperation (business
tourism), religious and cultural motives (pilgrimages), differences in income between the oilproducing
countries and other Arabian nations (flow of tourists from the former to the latter). In 1999,
60% of the tourists in Syria were from the Middle East, 37% in Lebanon and 16% in Egypt (WTO).
This flow has developed less quickly, however, than that from European markets : from 1992 to
2000, the proportion of tourists from the Middle East in Egypt went from 28.8% to 16%. Saudi
Arabia, nevertheless, remained the 5 th market for this country and Libya another considerable
market (Egyptian Ministry for Tourism).
Tunisia studies its markets in a way that is more adapted to its needs than the method used by the
WTO, by dividing the Arabian countries into two large regions « Africa » and « Middle East ».
Tunisia thus distinguishes arrivals from Arabian countries, with the Middle Eastern proportion limited
to a more restrained number of countries (mainly countries from the Persian Gulf). In this destination
that essentially attracts the European market, Arabian tourists made up 32% of the international
visitors in 2001. This demand distinguished:
• the Middle Eastern tourists who made up only 0.5% of the international visitors and 1.8% of
Arabian visitors, but who were a particularly interesting clientele since they favoured the top class
hotels and spent an average daily amount that was three times higher than that spent by the
average international visitor. This demand is variable and depends on the economic and political
situation of the emitting countries.
• the demand from the Maghreb that developed by more than 3% per year between 1994 and 2001
(to reach 30% of international visitors but only 2.4% of nights spent in hotels), but with a very
irregular evolution depending on the economic and political situation of the neighbouring
countries (Algeria, Libya). This demand, that is not correlated with the evolution of European
visitors, is characterised by recourse to private accommodation and by shorter stays. Their
average daily spending is three times less than the average for international visitors (Tunisian
National Tourist Office, quality department).
1 A « primo-tourist » is a first-time tourist.
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