5/09/2025

LYFE FRIDAY | SEP T 5, 2025

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Tunisia sees rebound in EU visitor numbers o Holidaymakers return after 2015 IS attack T EN years after a beach attack that killed 30 Britons and delivered a crippling blow to Tunisia’s tourism industry, European holidaymakers are finally returning in what authorities hope will be record-breaking numbers. from Wales staying at a five-star resort in Sousse not far from where the 2015 beach shooting occurred, said she knew people who survived the attack. But that did not deter her from visiting the North African country again.

People bathe and swim in the Mediterranean sea waters at a beach in the resort town of Hammamet in Tunisia’s Nabeul province.

hotel federation. At the Pearl Marriott in Sousse, general manager Maher Ferchichi said the surge reflected “a return of trust in Tunisia as a safe destination”. More than 90% of the hotel’s European guests were British, he added. Roddy Drummond, the British ambassador in Tunisia, said the embassy forecasts that around “400,000 British tourists will visit Tunisia in 2025”. That would translate to “around the same number as before the 2015 events”, Drummond added, crediting improved security for the shift. Eileen Cuciurean, a longtime visitor from Britain, said she noticed more British people at her hotel than in recent year. “In past years, sometimes we were the only ones,” the 78-year-old added. – AFP

“Nowhere is safe,” she said, her skin flushed from the midday sun, adding she had decided not to let fear make “us prisoners in our own country”. ‘Return of trust’ Foreign arrivals to Tunisia have jumped by nearly 10% this year compared with 2024, reaching 5.3 million through July 20, according to the National Tourism Office. The government hopes to attract 11 million visitors by the end of the year, up from 10 million last year. British tourism has surged most dramatically, up 48% through June, said Dora Milad, head of Tunisia’s

In June 2015, a Tunisian university student slipped a rifle out of a beach umbrella and opened fire on vacationers outside a hotel in Sousse, about 140km south of the capital. The shooting, claimed by the Islamic State group, left 38 people dead, most of them British, just months after another attack at the Bardo Museum in Tunis killed 21 foreign visitors. The violence sent a shockwave through Tunisia’s tourism industry, devastating one of the country’s most important sources of jobs and foreign currency. But a decade later, the visitors are returning. Diane Paul, a 74-year-old tourist

French and British tourists at

the beach in Hammamet.

Summer brings overtourism fears for ‘Bavarian Caribbean’ A picture-perfect Alpine mountain lake in Germany draws so many visitors every summer that the first thing they see is crowded buses, traffic jams and a packed-out carpark. The crystalline waters and mountain vistas of Bavaria’s Eibsee lake have become a hit on social media, fuelling fears it will be loved to death by overtourism.

Municipal official Christian Andrae said he is glad people appreciate the lake – but also that the crowds now sometimes remind him of “mass events” like Bavaria’s famed Oktoberfest. The lake at the foot of Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, has joined other destinations like Venice in re-evaluating the pros and cons of drawing throngs of visitors, albeit not yet on the same scale. In the nearby town of Grainau last week, crowds were waiting for shuttle buses up to the lake, only to find them so packed they had to wait for the next one. Bumper-to-bumper traffic crawled along the last few kilometres of the sole road up to the lake, which also leads to the equally jam-packed cable cars to the top of Zugspitze. Once visitors get to the lake, they are rewarded with stretches of beach along the pine-fringed shore, dubbed the “Bavarian Caribbean” by the local tourist office. “We didn’t think there would be

Tourists enjoy the view at the Eibsee lake, Grainau, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany.

Tourists wait at a bus stop near the Eibsee lake. – ALL PICS FROM AFP

daytime visitors, said Andrae, who is deputy mayor. He said he despairs at those visitors who “ignore signs on the road to the Eibsee telling them that the car parks are all full”, only to then “have to turn back and further worsen the traffic”. While some have suggested installing entry and exit barriers on the road leading to the lake, Andrae said such a system would be illegal and would not be an effective solution.

this many people, but it really is very beautiful,“ said 32-year-old French tourist Clement, as his partner Marion marvelled at the colour of the water. “It’s so clear, which isn’t often the case with lakes,” she said before the couple set off with their baby to complete the 7.5km circuit around the lake. ‘Certain amount of strain’ Grainau, a town of 3,600 inhabitants, hosts about 620,000 overnight stays per year, plus huge numbers of

Yan, 26, spent an hour-and-a-half on the road on the way to the lake, but said it was worth making their way through the traffic jams. “I really wanted to come back here,” said Max – for both it was their second visit. “It’s a wonderful place to spend the day,“ said Yan, who found that while there was “a huge number of people”, it was still just about possible to find some “more peaceful corners”. – AFP

“Visitors have to apply a certain level of responsibility and consideration,” he said. But for now, the town is prepared to live with the crowds and “the certain amount of strain” they put on the infrastructure. To keep the lake looking pristine, the municipality has “almost daily” collections from the numerous rubbish bins around the lake, Andrae said. Two other visitors, Max, 27, and