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Comments on the New Strategic Survey for Tunisian Tourism
by Richard Martin Oxman

‘Aslaama. [I hope I got that right; I understand that it means Hello in transliteration of Arabic.]

Directly below is something I saw today (8/28/10), taken from http://www.tunisiaonlinenews.com/strategic-survey-traces-new-road-map- for-tunisian-tourism/. My family has many singular ideas for generating tourism in Tunisia, and for creating a watershed in history for the people and their government. Here I am merely jotting down (in boldface) some responses I have… adjacent to words in the announcement below. I am only delineating some surface responses, as I respectfully request a rendezvous with the Minister of Tourism and other ministries in Tunisia. Ideally, I will be invited to visit Tunisia so that I can share our ideas in person, with lots of opportunity for dialogue in depth, in confidence. [Pause.] With the greatest humility, of course. Acknowledging our supreme ignorance of so much. [Pause.] We simply mean well. And… we have a vision.

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Strategic survey traces new road map for Tunisian tourism

TUNISIAONLINENEWS- With a view to promote and upgrade the tourism sector, Tunisian authorities The authorities have commissioned, a strategic study on prospects of the tourism sector by 2016. If this means that the government is spending a significant amount of money for the study, I do pray that we will be given an opportunity to save money for the government by putting our two cents into the mix. Ditto even if the layout is relatively low. We don’t want to undermine any contracts that have been already set up, but we’d like to provide feedback on what’s being proposed, considered.

Conducted by the International Consulting Office Roland Berger, the survey was carried out along 3 axes, definition of the strategy for developing the sector and working out an action plan to this end. This sounds as if “the study” is completed. If that’s the case, there’s still a window of opportunity respecting our desire to provide input, etc. …if 2016 is a target date of sorts for some of the plans agreed upon.

The survey stressed that in spite of its confirmed know-how, Tunisian tourism suffers from several insufficiencies: strong seasonality (mainly seaside product and its activities culminated between May and October), a lack of diversification in accommodation offers (mainly ageing hotels) in addition to the strong concentration on tour operators. We have excellent ideas, if I may say so, regarding how to reduce the heavy reliability on seasonality, and how to diversify as Tunisia becomes less dependent upon tour operators.

Diagnosis points out to an image deficit and a not very competitive marketing, compared with other destinations. The realms touched upon in this statement cross into our areas of expertise, and I can promise — guarantee — that we can create a fresh image for Tunisia in the marketplace which will be the top story in tourism for a very long time to come. That will come to pass, in part, because our proposals for action will not be contingent upon Tunisia spending more than Morocco or Turkey. Rather, there is a good chance that tourism could be increased dramatically with less than what is slated to be spent. Again, we do not want to undermine the interests of anyone for whom the present allocation of government funds is intended, but recipients of government funds — naturally — must justify financial support with results. And those in a decision-making capacity for Tunisia respecting the budget for tourism, we believe, deserve to consider “alternatives” before ALL the money presently designated is spent.

For instance, the overall budget dedicated to communication in Tunisia stood at 27 million euros in 2009, while Morocco spent twice as much (49 million euros) and it was more than 4 times in Turkey (82 million euros). We do not want to be presumptuous, but it would be helpful to know what the budget is likely to be for the future. At present, we have lots of constructive criticism with regard to how money has been spent in the past. Again, we are a bit nervous about creating the impression that we’re trying to take euros out of the hands of present day recipients, so that we can personally benefit in lieu of those receiving benefits from the status quo. In fact, it is clear to us that our compensation will not eat into others’ income. Rather, our contribution to improving matters concerning the tourism budget is primarily about saving money for the people of Tunisia. Elaboration on this, as with all else here, upon request.

To jumpstart the sector on new bases, the survey recommends to act on four planes: improve the offer, stimulate demand, step up competitiveness and the sector’s durability. We would like to ask questions about this statement. To clarify the meaning of some of the terms used. Certainly, we have no doubt that we can produce positive historic changes when it comes to competitiveness.

As regards improving the offer’s overall quality, the survey proposes to diversify products, subjects and accommodation modes. Again, we feel the need to clarify certain terms used here. We have lots of ideas regarding how to have a broader selection of accommodation.

A special interest was taken in a communication focusing on innovative products, improving entertainment activities, upgrading the offer, reviewing the current ranking standards and control and incentive mechanisms (bonus/extra premium). This sounds good on the surface, but — again — we request clarification. The business of “reviewing the current ranking standards” sounds very good, if we understand the phrase correctly. The business about “incentive mechanisms,” however, is slightly suspect. Certainly, one wants to provide incentives across the board for all of those involved in the support system for Tunisia’s tourism. That said, our experience is that there is often a lot of time wasted in setting up incentive plans for various people, organizations and businesses. We do have a viable alternative to being overly reliant on the usual suspects in this realm. On top of that, we believe there are probably many people, organizations and businesses which are NOT being tapped into at present. This is arguably an area in which we are likely to shine the most for Tunisia. We have long-standing contacts worldwide, especially in North America, which are begging to be taken advantage of. And those contacts will be very grateful for being brought into the loop, so to speak. Furthermore, they are the kind of contacts which will provide excellent means for spreading the word about Tunisia’s transformation as a desirable tourist destination.

Concerning the stimulation of demand, the survey calls for devising a brand strategy of the local tourist product and its components, adopting ambitious marketing plans, developing domestic tourism, consolidating positioning on neighboring markets and reinforcing presence on the Net. We have much to comment on here, but the most important point to underscore for now is the very important business of “reinforcing presence on the Net.” We have suggestions on that count which follow a new paradigm for PR.

In the prospect of a long-term registration of the tourist sector, the same survey suggests a set of actions: adapting tourist governance to the sector’s new requirements, reviewing the training model and integrating the sustained development issues in the future strategies. We have questions about this.

It is to the survey’s credit that it has assisted its projects by concrete actions presenting for their part the advantage of being included in the budget and spread out on a well determined period (July 2010-December 2016). All else being equal, we’d like to be made privy to the details. Obviously, it would help us to help Tunisia. That said, sharing such private information is not essential for starters.

The set of these actions come in five strategic axes touching upon diversifying and innovating the offer, promotion and marketing, developing the institutional framework, restructuring the sector’s financial situation and changing into compatible web tourism.

Concretely, some twenty priority actions and 160 measures were identified. Efforts will focus on developing the quality charter “Jasmine,” encouraging innovation (institutionalize innovating projects’ assistance, re-fitting tourist areas, etc.) diversifying tourist accommodation types and favoring the development of new accommodation modes). This paragraph and the paragraph which precedes it beg several questions.

As to promotion, interest will be taken in increasing air partners, adopting a marketing approach by country (launching targeted communication campaigns, adopting a new marketing approach in function of markets), establishing a new factual policy (creation of an international-scale event in connection with Tunisia’s tourist wealth) and diversifying financing sources. Modernization of the institutional framework is the other project to be achieved. Many excellent/necessary suggestions here, it seems, and we have a few “pet projects” we’d love to throw into the mix which come under the umbrella of the “international-scale event” category.

Other actions will be carried out including re-organizing the institutional system, setting up a structure of projects and upgrading professional training in order to adapt training to the sector’s new needs.

Accordingly, it will include restructuring the financial situation of Tunisian tourism is one of the measures to be taken in the future.

Efforts will focus on assessing the hotels’ financial situation and rehabilitating units in difficulty.

For the stake of adapting tourism to the customers’ new requirements (booking on the Net, etc.) and intensifying to this end ICT’ utilization, the action plan provides for reviewing the website of the National Board of Tunisian Tourism (ONTT), reconstructing it around 3 spaces (Intranet, Extranet and general public.), setting up e-governance, consolidating training in e-tourism (planning training sessions of on-line tourism within hotel institutes, etc.). This moves into a specialty area of ours — online reconstruction — where we would be honored to tackle the many challenges which face Tunisia on the Net. Naturally, reconstruction demands that great attention be paid to much more than format. The new content is, in great part, what we want to discuss with the authorities in charge.

These actions will undoubtedly contribute to achieve objectives set by the presidential program for the next five years. The “presidential program for the next five years” — obviously — is of great interest to us. We would very much like to be in a position to honor Tunisia’s primary priorities. We want to serve as a valuable asset to your agenda.

The ultimate goal is to get closer to the objective of 10 million tourists a year, generate revenues worth 5365.7 million dinars, achieve a bed-night rate of 54.3% and reach 260,300 beds by 2014. Tunisia’s “ultimate goal” will be our top priority, and — once we are clear on what the full foundation is for having established such aims — we will be honored to be included as part of the country’s team. Personal compensation along traditional lines is not what we are after. Rather, we would welcome an opportunity to delineate what’s in it for us, as they say. We will be asking — to judge by most standards — very little.

Meanwhile, Tunisian tourism, a strategic activity, manages an overall accommodation capacity of 250,000 beds, contributes by means of 7% to GDP, provides nearly 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, and partly compensates for the trade balance deficit by hard currency receipts a year (20% at total). The Big Picture for Tunisia is very dear to our hearts. There are many aspects of Tunisia above and beyond the realm of tourism which we would like to discuss with people working in an official capacity of some sort. For we firmly believe that we have valuable ideas to share which — organically connected to tourism concerns — might benefit one and all in various realms.

Please contact the author at 831-688-8038 in Aptos, California, USA (at any hour). Or email him at aptosnews@gmail.com. He and his family have many years of successful experience in marketing overseas businesses of their own. See the ARCHIVED sites of www.parisgraves.com, www.frenchpaintbox.com and www.cancerfreeitaly.com as examples, if you will. The author and his family have a Silicon Valley/California perspective to contribute to whatever marketing plans are being considered by Tunisia, and they trust that they have a lot more than that to offer. For what it’s worth many people worldwide have pledged to play a supportive role for their efforts in the Maghreb.