TUNIS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- After three years of suspension, British tour operator Thomas Cook resumed services in Tunisia and brought back British tourists to the north African country, a Tunisian tourism official said Wednesday.
According to Bassem Ouertani, the regional tourism delegate in Sousse, seaside province of eastern Tunisia, the British tour operator resumes its activities in Tunisia at the rate of three weekly flights.
"The first flight has landed on Tuesday at the airport Nefidha-Hammamet from Birmingham, with 220 British tourists", said Ouertani.
The frequency of flights of this tour operator is expected to reach, from the beginning of this May, 10 flights per week.
The decision of the British authorities to ban travel to Tunisia dates back to June 2015 following a bloody attack at a hotel in Sousse killing at least 38 dead including 30 English tourists.
Last July, British diplomacy decided to partially lift this restriction with the exception of certain areas of Tunisia, including those bordering with Libya and Algeria.
Holding about 8 percent of the country's GDP, tourism sector posted a growth of 23.2 percent in 2017 by receiving over 7 millions tourists of all nationalities, said the communication office of the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism.
According to the ministry, among these tourists are about 1.69 million Europeans, with an increase of nearly 20 percent, of which 27.956 are British tourists.
