Tunisia vows hard work to overcome impact of Russia-Ukraine crisis on tourism

TUNIS, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The Tunisian tourism minister on Wednesday promised to work hard to overcome the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the country's tourism sector.

"Several flights have been cancelled to Tunisia, especially since the number of Russian tourists will be in remarkable decline," Mohamed Moez Belhassine said on the sidelines of a national forum on tourism.

Belhassine revealed that his ministry has set up a crisis unit whose main mission is to monitor the effects of the conflict.

"The crisis unit is in direct contact with most of the tourist operators in Russia and Ukraine as well as in eastern and central Europe," the minister said, highlighting the importance of the Russian market for the growth of the Tunisian tourism sector.

A total of 630,000 Russian tourists visited Tunisia in 2019, and the number dropped sharply to 90,000 during the period of 2020-2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, according to Belhassine.