Madar (Tunis) - Tunisia's Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Sofiene Tekaya, said the country's tourism receipts reached 7.152 billion dinars by the end of October 2026, up 3.4% on the same period of 2025 and 25.1% on 2019, the Tunisian daily La Presse reported on Sunday, 15 November 2026.
The minister was speaking to members of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People and the National Council of Regions and Districts at a joint plenary session examining his ministry's 2027 budget. He also reported about 9 million non-resident visitors by the same date.
According to the tourism satellite accounts presented by the minister, total internal tourism consumption reached 17.47 billion dinars in 2025, against 16.1 billion in 2024 and 14.6 billion in 2023, including 12.8 billion spent by non-resident visitors and 4.7 billion by domestic tourism.
Accommodation was the largest share of non-resident spending at 5.15 billion dinars, or 40% of the total, followed by transport by national carriers (2.58 billion), purchases of goods and services (2.48 billion) and restaurants outside hotels (1.64 billion).
Europe accounted for 64.8% of tourism receipts in 2025, led by France, followed by Germany, Poland, Italy and the United Kingdom. The Russian market grew by more than 83%, while the Japanese and Chinese markets each generated more than 40 million dinars.
On domestic tourism, more than 2 million resident Tunisian tourists stayed in hotels in the first ten months of 2026, or 35.7% of guests. The minister said the sector's ambition is no longer only to attract more visitors, but also to improve profitability and draw higher-spending clients.
