THE French hotel group Accor is planning an aggressive expansion in Tunisia over the next two years, with the addition 30 hotels to its portfolio in the country.
This will reinforce the company’s position in North Africa, where it already has 13 properties in Morocco and 19 in Egypt.
The move will involve a mixture of new properties and takeovers of existing hotels. They will be spread across its three-star brand Coralia, three-star Mercure and four to five-star Sofitel ranges.
International sales and marketing director UK, Peter Haigh, said: “Tunisia has an attractive climate, it is seen as safe and easily accessible from the UK. By having a choice of mid-market and upmarket properties we can appeal to a wide audience – from families to couples.”
Last autumn Accor took over the management of six hotels, taking its total number in Tunisia to eight. New additions include the five-star Sofitel Palm Beach on the island of Djerba in the south of the country – which the company is keen to promote the conference and incentives market – and the three-star Coralia Club Monastir, which is aimed at the family market. Accor paid £1.1m for a 51% stake in Tunisian company Tunisia Hotels Resort which owns the six hotels.
Accor’s Tunisian hotels are not featured by UK operators as the takeover happened too late to get them into summer 2000 brochures. The company is currently promoting them to the trade for next year. “Our leisure resort sales manager Gabrielle Alam is promoting the properties to the mass market and niche operators,” said Haigh.
“We will be running fam trips for product managers to educate them on our properties and we are confident they will make it into brochures for summer 2001.”
There are still beds available across the eight hotels this summer.
I had sold plenty of beach holidays to Tunisia in the past but never booked anyone on a city break to Tunis. I had never been to the country either, although my parents had been to one of the beach resorts and told me all about it. I suppose I was expecting Tunis to be a sun, sea and sand destination, which it isn’t. Through product training as an agent, I knew that Tunisia’s hotels were highly rated, so I was expecting a high standard of accommodation and service.
The food was not exactly my cup of tea as I am not a great meat-eater. There was a lot of fish and meat on every menu. I would recommend Tunis only to the more independent and well-travelled client, who likes to get out and explore a city, visit museums and take in some culture. I wouldn’t recommend it to group of young girls, as I did get hassled to buy stuff in the markets. I also wouldn’t recommend it to young people looking for good nightlife, as there is not much to do there in the evening – entertainment is mainly based around hotel discos.
There was lots to do! Sidi Bou Said has good shops and cafes to sit in and watch the world go by, Tunis had a souk which was a fun place to haggle for clothes and jewellery. At just under three hours away, I’d suggest it as an easily accessible winter-sun break. It will appeal to adventurous couples looking for somewhere different, also older clients with an interest in history and culture. For those who are adventurous on the food front, the local dishes are worth investigating, especially the Brik a l’oeuf – an envelope of deep-fried filo pastry with a lightly-cooked egg in it.
My knowledge of Tunisia was pretty sketchy as I hadn’t been to any part of the country. I had a few pre-conceived ideas that most of the activities would be hotel-based – which turned out to be true in the case of the beach resorts – and that there would not be a lot to do outside the hotels. Although, with Tunis being the capital, I thought there might be more going on there. It was a destination I had considered going to but had not felt that strongly about – it was not on my ‘have to go’ list.
It was November and we were walking around in T-shirts and shorts, so I can recommend it as a winter-sun destination. We visited the Golden Tulip Carthage hotel in Tunis, which was still being built. It is so big it is like a little town, it looked amazing. It has Roman baths, Turkish baths, and entertainment and sports areas. I’d recommend Tunis to couples as the hotels were not really geared to families. I wouldn’t recommend it to groups of girls as the market traders did home in on girls in the group. I’m suggesting it now to people who have been to Paris and Amsterdam and who want to go further afield.
I didn’t have much knowledge about the country before I went. I had heard conflicting things about Tunisia, so I wanted to go there and find out for myself. On the one hand, I had heard that you get hassled by the local traders to buy stuff and also that the food left a little to be desired. On the other hand, I’d been told the local people were friendly and that the country provided an exotic, cultural experience. I must admit that I had never really thought of Tunis as a city-break destination.