Act One of 2011’s Arab Spring was unfolding just as First Time Africa was going to the printers, though there’s little we could have changed from the visitor-friendly description we painted on pages 383–386. While some Tunis street fronts have had their facades slightly re-modelled over the course of Tunisia’s revolution, as in Egypt the worst that any tourist suffered was inconvenience – though there were incidents in May of tourist vehicles being stoned. The country is very much open for business again, though the uneven pace of progress towards a democratic government has meant that sporadic protests and curfews have continued.
Links we like
Tunisia.com Lively portal for visitors, with a whole page on Tunisia’s Star Wars locations. It’s not clear how much updating and maintenance has been going on since the revolution, however: “history” now stops at the Iron Age, which seems sweeping even if they felt some revision was necessary.
Tunisia Online Official portal introducing local media, historic sites, national parks and news. Currently it seems to be Tunisia Offline, but it may return.
Tunisian National Tourist Office Official visitor info, attractively presented.
This page last edited 9 June 2011 © Richard Trillo and Emma Gregg
First-Time Africa: know before you go 