The Development Of Alternative Tourism In Tunisia: Innovate Or Disappear"! An Example Of Saharan Tourism

Abstract

The Tunisian tourist offer has long been standardized and focused on a coastal product. Tourism institutions and actors have shown efforts to diversify this offer, particularly by introducing alternative tourism such as Saharan tourism, where local development's geographical, tourist, and socio-economic opportunities seem obvious. Tourism is one of the world's most important economic activity, having significant economic growth potential for emerging and least developed countries. However, in its current incarnations, it is controlled by foreign operators, and its focus on coastal tourism is unfavorable. In order to attain growth, the nation must develop its travel offerings using a variety of strategies, such as improvement of current solutions, positioning the offer as having value, and surprise the customer. Innovation requires specialized marketing, as it requires defining or redefining the activity, developing or revising the offer, analyzing the competition, and understanding the new customer behavior. However, the results expected from such a policy remained insufficient and concluded that while desert tourism is meant to be a by-product of coastal tourism, coastal tourism still predominates in Tunisia. Saharan tourism is defined as a "desert" product, similar to thalassotherapy and golf. It serves as a way for guests who have travelled to the coast to extend their stay. Saharan tourism remained a complementary product (complementation to the sea through circuits towards the Sahara). This work aims to include how the Sahara and these regions can become fully-fledged tourist destinations.