Agents have welcomed Thomas Cook’s plan to resume holidays to Tunisia early next year.
Cook is the first major UK operator to restart holidays to the country since the beach massacre of 38 Tui holidaymakers, including 30 Britons, in Sousse in June 2015.
The Foreign Office (FCO) relaxed its advice about travel to Tunisia at the end of last month.
Cook flights and holidays will restart on February 13, 2018. Holidays near the resort of Hammamet went on sale this week with eight hotels to choose from.
John Sullivan, head of commercial at The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “It’s always good to have more choice and flexibility, but it makes sense that it’s a gradual, managed step.”
Hays Travel head of retail Paula Barrett said: “Tunisia offers a year-round alternative to the Spanish islands. There are a lot of repeat customers to Tunisia who will be pleased to see it back.”
Tony Mann, director of Idle Travel in Bradford, said: “Tunisia offers a price-led alternative to the Med. We’ve had people ask about Tunisia. It will be slow to start, but people will go back.”
Cook’s group head of customer welfare, Carol MacKenzie, said: “Lots of customers have been asking us when Tunisia will be back on sale. We’re starting in just a few resorts where we’re confident we can offer the high-quality our customers expect.”
Cook, which took 200,000 UK holidaymakers to Tunisia in 2014, has a Tunisia programme and resort teams in place for German, Belgian and French customers, whose governments did not advise against travel to the country. Just Sunshine was the first UK operator to return to Tunisia after the FCO stopped advising against travel.
A Tui spokesperson said: “We will look at whether to re-introduce Tunisia for future seasons taking in to account customer demand. No firm decisions have been taken yet.”
Jet2holidays said it had no plans to return to Tunisia this winter, while Monarch said it was “assessing the market”.