(Ecofin Agency) - Tunisia’s tourism industry generated a total of $554 million during the first 7 months of this year, reflecting an increase by 42% compared to the same period last year, the tourism minister said.

Likewise, tourist arrivals also grew by 23% to 4.4 million during the period. This good performance breathes new life into a sector still affected by political instability following the Jan 2011 revolution and terrorist attacks, the deadliest being that of Sousse (39 deaths) and Bardo (21 deaths) in 2015.

Let’s note that government’s whole year expectation is 8 million tourist arrivals, up from the 7.1 million 4 years earlier.