Sun, sea and style
Peter Kinworthy, commercial director of GB Airways, believes most North African countries, including Tunisia, have great potential. This year the airline has increased the frequency of its flights to Tunis from three to four services a week, allowing travellers to go for short breaks as well as for longer stays. Last year the airline carried 33,000 passengers to Tunis. Kinworthy expects this to increase by 25% this year. For enquiries and reservations ring 0345 222111.
AS A tourist destination, Tunisia is not unlike Spain. Sand and sea, along with more or less guaranteed sunshine, attract thousands of visitors every year.
But the hospitality industry in Tunisia is not as mature - and most Tunisians are glad about it. "We've seen the mistakes that were made in Spain, and they are a cautionary tale," says Houssem Ben Azouz, director of the Tunisian National Tourist Organisation in London. "We might have started a bit later, but we have the lessons of other countries before us." Consequently, hotels in Tunisia are generally low-rise and in local style, and there is little evidence of the concrete monsters which blight Spanish resorts.
But the market is fast approaching saturation. There is an oversupply of beds in some areas, which has led to heavy discounting and therefore to an increase in the kind of tourist the Tunisians are keen to keep out - those in search of a cheap holiday in the sun with plenty of alcohol. The Tunisian Government has now intervened, imposing a ceiling of 200,000 beds by the middle of 2000. The figure at present is 170,000.
Even so, competition will be stiff. To avoid a glut of empty hotel rooms and attract a different kind of tourist, the industry must diversify. Learning once more from the Spanish and Portuguese experience, Tunisian operators are developing their product.
This will be tough for the 40% of hoteliers who operate in the traditional three-star market, but for new entrants it will be easier. This is true for the Residence, Tunis, an 80% Singaporean-owned five-star hotel which has been trading for only two years. The 170-bedroom establishment, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World group, services both the corporate and leisure markets, and its £6.25m annual turnover is split equally between them.
One of its unique selling points is a Thalasso therapy centre, an upmarket spa which cost £1.88m to install and uses fresh sea water and seaweed. There are 12 Thalasso therapy centres in the country, but the Residence has the only one in the Tunis area.
"By offering Thalasso we can market the whole product of luxury service along with seaside, and it's only 20 minutes from an international airport," says resident manager Paolo Fetz. There are also plans to add a golf course, which will open in 2001 and make the operation a £10m business.
Just down the road from The Residence, in the 309-bedroom Khamsa Corinthia, part of the Maltese Corinthia Group, the traditional sun, sand and sea formula has been retained, but is aimed as much at the corporate and incentive market as at the traditional tourist. This is particularly important in order to boost occupancy levels in quiet periods. During Ramadan, when Muslims reaffirm their allegiance to Mohammed by fasting from dawn to dusk for a month and relatively little business takes place, occupancy at the Khamsa Corinthia slumps to just 20%.
In nearby Hammamet, Radhouane Ben Salah is also aware of the need to pursue new business opportunities. Ben Salah runs two hotels and is building a third, which is due to open at the beginning of 2001. The new 350-bedroom hotel will have a Thalasso therapy centre, and will rely on business from a 250-mooring marina now under construction. "We need to attract a new clientele as well as enrich what we have to offer to our traditional market," he says.
Diversification might be the name of the game, but chasing a wider audience means higher standards of service are needed than are usually found in Tunisia.
It is here that international staff come into their own. At the operational level, locals provide a good and friendly workforce who - if they have not been trained in one of Tunisia's eight hotel schools - are trained on the job. Key positions are often filled by foreigners. At the Residence, head chef Mauro Cocco, who is in charge of two restaurants and banqueting, is Italian, the general manager, Jean-Pierre Auriol, is French, and Paolo Fetz is Swiss.
Compared with other Arab countries Tunisia is liberal, and there are no restrictions on foreigners working in the industry. But there are other difficulties. Arabic is the official language, but most Tunisians are bilingual in Arabic and French, so Europeans working in the hotel industry need a good knowledge of the latter.
So what's it like for a foreigner to work in Tunisia? Paolo Fetz at the Residence has experience of Europe and Thailand. In excellent English (one of the six languages he speaks) he says he has been in Tunisia for six months.
A big frustration is how long it takes to make things happen. "You have to be tolerant," he says. "If you applied the same ethos as in Europe you'd go mad very quickly."
Helen Ben Salem, assistant to the general manager at the Khamsa Corinthia, a 40-year-old Brit married to a Tunisian, agrees. "Punctuality is rare. If you ask an agency to produce a brochure for you and give them a deadline, they're unlikely to deliver on time. And there's no point going to another agency, because they're all the same."
This is Ben Salem's second job in the Tunisian hotel industry. She worked in the sales and marketing department of the Residence when it first opened, and moved when the Khamsa Corinthia opened. It's rare to find Brits in Tunisia's hotel industry - it's not that they are unwelcome, but they often lack linguistic skills.
Ben Salem says she got the job because of her linguistic and administrative abilities. She deals with local people as well as her Maltese employers, translating memos from French into English and talking to guests.
Tolerance of local customs and habits is also needed. Tunisia is a Muslim country, but is not as strict as others. Locals do not generally stop work to be called to prayer, and some drink alcohol, which is served in most hotels and some restaurants.
During the month of Ramadan, the breaking of the fast at about 5pm is the biggest event of the day, and women in hotel administration often work shifts so they can leave at 3pm to prepare the evening's feast.
If you want high wages, you are unlikely to find them in Tunisia. The minimum wage is 180 dinars (£105) a month. A waiter might make 350 dinars (£205) plus tips, a sous chef 900 dinars (£528), a restaurant manager 600 dinars (£352) and a general manager 2,500 dinars (£1,500), depending on experience. A typical working week is 45 hours and includes Saturday morning. Foreigners usually live in the hotel and have few living expenses. This is a blessing, as the cost of living can be high: meat and cheese are more expensive than in the UK, and the cost of insuring a car is higher than in New York City.
But for the most part the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Tunisia might be trying to escape its sun and sea image, but for people working there they are still a big attraction. n
