Tunisian authorities proposed to Russia to resume charter flights, preparations are underway to restore the tourist flow, Russian Ambassador to Tunisia Sergey Nikolaev said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The Ambassador said that since 2016, the number of Russian tourists visiting Tunisia has been growing steadily and reached its peak of 640,000 people a year. "There were preconditions to bring this figure to 800 thousand, and according to some estimates, to 1 million people. But the COVID-19 pandemic prevented these plans from being realized. Tunisia was practically closed for inbound tourism" Nikolaev said.
According to Nikolaev, there is an understanding with the Tunisian leadership that the safety of Russian citizens is an absolute priority. The embassy is in constant contact with the Ministry of Tourism of Tunisia and monitors the sanitary and epidemiological situation.
"I am sure that the flow of tourists will resume as the situation normalizes. We are gradually preparing for this. The first concrete steps have been taken. The Tunisian government has taken "special" measures for the Russian tourist market and offered to resume charter flights from Russia. Russian aviation authorities granted "Aeroflot" permission for regular flights from Moscow to Tunisia (up to seven flights a week)", Nikolaev added.
Minister of Tourism of Tunisia Habib Ammar said on February 6, that the year 2020 was the worst in the history of tourism in modern Tunisia. Revenues in the tourism industry were down 64 percent compared to 2019, and the number of tourists arriving in the country was down 73 percent.
Currently, all citizens arriving in Tunisia are required to provide a PCR test made 72 hours before arrival, as well as to spend at least seven days quarantined in one of the hotels determined by the authorities at their own expense. The quarantine can be left on the seventh day if the new PCR test proves negative.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 217,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Tunisia since the pandemic began, more than 175,000 people have recovered and more than 7,000 patients have died.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from RIA Novosti