Sousse terrorist attack a blow to Tunisia’s faltering economy

Strolling down the beach, they had no idea that the path they chose had been a life-or-death decision. “Over here, it was paradise on earth,” say Gavin Petts and partner Sandra Kingshot, pointing to grassy cabanas along the shoreline. “And over there, it was hell.”

The empty cluster of sunbeds and parasols at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in Tunisia’s resort of Sousse is now a crime scene, surrounded by yellow police tape.

Had the couple walked towards the neighbouring hotel instead of away from it, they would have been caught in the gunfire that killed 39 people.

Around this stretch of sand, tourists not yet evacuated from neighbouring hotels continue their holiday. Some swim, others sunbathe. A parasail glides overhead. Locals, meanwhile, take stock of what the attack means for them.

The country's already faltering economy is highly dependent on tourism. Moaz al-Joudi, an economist , says Friday's attack targeted Tunisia when it was already in economic crisis. "The hit was done by those who know Tunisia's economic situation well and are intent on its collapse," he says.

Tourism brings about 20 per cent of hard currency to the country, he says.

Afraid for future

Mohammed Aridh, wearing his striped beach waiter’s uniform, serves the handful of people still on the sands. “I’m so afraid for my future, my family,” the 26-year-old says. “Just a day earlier, we had 700 people here. Now we are down to 200 waiting to leave.”

On Friday, he helped rush tourists inside the hotel as he watched Seifeddine Rezgui, the gunman, pass by while police and security forces rushed to the area. “I watched him walk past with his Kalashnikov, so calmly. He wasn’t trying to shoot Tunisians,” he says.

Sousse is one of the main tourism sites in an industry that provides about 14 per cent of Tunisia’s GDP and employs nearly 12 per cent of the working population.

“Around 400,000 people work directly in tourism and one million are either directly or indirectly dependent on it,” said Zohra Idriss, Imperial Marhaba’s hotel owner, at a press conference in the empty hotel on Saturday. “The terrorists want to break apart the Tunisian state . . . they want to bring down its economy.”

The economic impact of terrorism will go well beyond tourism, says Khayam Turki, former deputy of Tunisia’s Ettakatol party and founder of Jusur, a new political think tank.

“Tunisia has no resources. We live on our image abroad. Tourism is the special link between Tunisia and foreign countries.”

Vulnerable

The attack was all the more shocking because it revealed how vulnerable the tourism sector still is, following the March attack on Bardo National Museum, in which three gunmen killed 21 people, mostly European visitors.

“It will take two to three years to get people to forget what happened,” Khayam says. That is, if there are no other attacks; and most analysts expect there will be more.”

Idriss had five guards at her hotel at the time of the attack. None carried arms, because only security forces may carry weapons in Tunisia.

Four armed policemen were monitoring the beach on the day of the attack. One, who asked not to be named, drove up on his four-wheel vehicle at the weekend to watch tourists, some in swimsuits, lay flowers at the site of the attack. “The beach is over 15km long,” he says. “It’s impossible to protect the entire beach. We need more men.”

Tunisians agree security must be stepped up, but in Sousse the damage is done. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015