MS Amera (owned by Phoenix Reisen) arrived on Thursday in Tunis (Port La Goulette) carrying a total of 1090 passengers. This is the first cruise ship to Tunisia since the terrorist attack in Tunis in 2015, in which 22 tourists died.
Rene Trabelsi (the country's Minister of Tourism and Handicraft) was welcoming the disembarking tourists at Port La Goulette and said the cruise ship had come from Malta and resumed her journey to Italy later. He added that the anchoring of Amera in the port of La Goulette was "the beginning of the revival of cruise tourism in Tunisia." Trabelsi stressed the ministry would seek to attract cruise ship tourism to other areas in Tunisia.
Port's financial director Wissem Bouchnak estimated that Tunisia would host no less than 10 ship calls in 2020 and this number is expected to increase in 2021. The country has witnessed a slump in tourism since 2015 when it was hit by the terrorist attacks. However, in recent years, the security situation has improved and foreign tourists have increased.