According to the Chinese Embassy in Tunis, the Tunisian authorities have recently decided to implement a visa-free entry policy for Chinese tourists.
Tunisia, the full name of the Republic of Tunisia, covers an area of 162,000 square kilometers. According to the statistics of 2022, the country has 12 million inhabitants, of which more than 90% are Arabs, the folk language is Arabic, and the state religion is Islam.
Tourism is Tunisia’s largest source of foreign exchange. The collective scope of employment reached 350,000, accounting for about 3.6% of the total population, and 12% of the unemployment results were handled.
As the number of overseas visitors approaches pre-coronavirus levels, Tunisian officials estimate tourist spending fell by about $550 million in the first five months of this year, up 57 percent from the same period last year. The increase in tourists has weighed heavily on foreign exchange spending, further straining its finances and affecting food and medicine supplies. Fitch has upgraded its sovereign debt rating to “junk” because of the build-up in foreign-exchange reserves.
In August, Tunisia’s tourism minister, Mohamed El Moez Belhassine, unveiled a series of steps to encourage tourism growth. These steps include the establishment of a special committee to harmonize transport, health and agriculture.
Tunisia is located in the northern end of Africa on the Mediterranean coast, its surrounding Greece, Egypt, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey, etc., are popular tourist destinations.
The country is home to eight UNESCO-designated world heritage sites, most of which are scattered along the eastern coast: the National Gardens of Echikur, the Arab quarters, the ruins of Carthage, the Colosseum of Cem, the village of Cokewanibuni and its tombs, the Old Village of Sousse, the towns of Kairouan and Shag.
The center of “Kondavi” in Sous province is the largest tourist base in the world, and the city of Tunis, Sous, Monastir, Bung Cape and Djerba Island are also famous tourist areas.
In late 2010 and early 2011, anti-regime petitions led to the fall of then-leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, making Tunisia the first Arab country to be toppled by popular rebellion. The storm had a huge impact on northern Africa and the Middle East.
Since then, Tunisia has established a transitional authority, becoming the only country in the Arab Spring to overcome the transition to democracy.
In 2015 and 2016, Tunisia overcame four terrorist attacks, resulting in a large number of domestic tourists casualties, the tourism industry was seriously hit. In 2017, the tourism industry showed signs of warming up.
Tunisia’s tourism industry has been hit hard once again after the coronavirus outbreak. In 2022, Tunisia’s tourism industry is once again warm, with 6.4 million tourists and about 4.2 billion dinars (about 98.2 billion yuan) spent on Tours.
At present, Chinese tourists are enthusiastic about inbound tourism, according to a number of tour platform data performance, compared with the same period last year, inbound tourism orders during the Mid-Autumn Festival/National Day increased by as much as 20 times.
The Chinese Embassy in Tunisia has warned Chinese tourists to comply with law enforcement and show contempt for local religions and ethnic habits while visiting Tunisia.
Public information shows that on February 22, 2023, China has entered into mutual visa waiver agreements with 152 countries, and Chinese nationals with useful passports do not need to request visas in advance when going to these countries for short-term tourism.
The Chinese Consulate notes that visa-free entry does not mean whether to stop or live in the agreement country indefinitely, according to the agreement requirements, after holding an unrelated passport visa-free entry, generally only allowed to stop for no more than 30 days. If the holder needs to stop for more than 30 days, according to the request, he should apply for residence formalities in the local area as soon as possible.
