Cook revealed its return to Tunisia on Monday, with flights from Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester to Enfidha–Hammamet International airport beginning on February 13, 2018. They will initially serve just six hotels in Hammamet, Mahida and Skanes. However, a Cook spokesperson confirmed to TTG that two more properties would be added to the summer programme, when flights from Newcastle and Glasgow will also be offered.
The UK’s Foreign Office (FCO) gave the all-clear for most of Tunisia at the end of July, but Tui and Monarch have so far not committed to a return. In the past month, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs has also relaxed its advice for the North African country.
Cook’s Tunisia programme accounted for 200,000 clients in 2014, before the attack in June 2015 in Sousse that killed 38 tourists, most of them Tui clients.
The country welcomed a total of seven million tourists in 2010. In summer 2015, Tunisia had 90 flights a week from seven airlines. Cook declined to put a figure on its sales target for 2018.
Three of the hotels featured by Cook are its own brand Sentido properties and all but one will be sold on an all-inclusive basis. The hotels are already in use for Cook’s German, French and Belgian clients, whose governments did not advise against travel to the country following the Sousse attack, Cook said.
The operator said it was responding to demand from the UK public for the chance to holiday in Tunisia again. A spokesperson said that after the FCO advice was relaxed, it saw an increase in in-store enquiries for Tunisia, as well as web searches.
Carol McKenzie, Cook’s head of customer welfare, added in a blog: “Since it closed for British holidaymakers two years ago, we’ve had lots of customers asking us when Tunisia will be back on sale.”
Mounira Derbel Ben Cherifa, UK director, Tunisian National Tourist Office, said Cook’s return was “a boost to confidence” and added the tourist office was in talks with the operator to support its programme.
Tui has still to say when it will return. A spokesperson told TTG: “As the overall level of advice has now changed for Tunisia, we will look at whether we will reintroduce the destination for future seasons, which will also take into account customer demand.”
