Thanks to the Tourism Recovery Programme, businesses in the Tunisian tourism industry will be able to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, improve their capacity to innovate, maintain jobs and strengthen international collaboration with the European market, econostrum reports.
Created by enpact, an organisation promoting entrepreneurship in emerging and developing countries, and the TUI Care Foundation, founded by TUI, the world’s leading tourism group, the Tourism Recovery Programme will run in coordination with the local project “Promotion of Sustainable Tourism”. This joint action between the European Union, in the framework of the “Tounes Wijhetouna” programme, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ – German Economic Cooperation) in partnership with the Ministry for Tourism, the same source says.
The call for applications mainly concerns accommodation facilities, restaurants and bars, tour operators, recreational, cultural and sports facilities, reservation and assistance platforms, but also internet portals specialising in tourism and consultancy and event management agencies as well as transport, logistics and retail companies.
100 companies in the selection process
Tunisian entrepreneurs signing up to the Tourism Recovery Programme will receive dedicated mentoring, training and financial support of up to €9,000 per business. The six-month programme is aimed at innovative travel and tourism SMEs. 100 of them will be able to apply on the dedicated website on condition that they are legally registered in Tunisia and run independently. They must also have generated revenues before the Covid-19 crisis and “display an innovative business model in terms of technology, social or environmental issues”. Applications are open until 27 October 2021, with the selected companies starting to receive support in January 2022.
The pandemic caused a 65% drop in international arrivals in 2020, while 14.9% of the total working population works in the tourism sector.
Launched in June 2021, the Tourism Recovery Programme has already integrated 330 businesses worldwide, including fifty in Egypt, eighty in South Africa, eighty in Kenya and 105 in Mexico.
TunisianMonitorOnline
