First cruise ship docks in Tunisia since attack
A celebratory band played as a cruise liner docked in the port of Tunis for the first time since a March 2015 militant attack killed 21 tourists in the capital.
The German-operated MS Europa motored into La Goulette with some 310 passengers on board for a oneday stopover.
The tourists, cameras at the ready, were greeted by a band of soldiers playing trumpets and drums, as well as camels and North African dancing, and shopkeepers garlanded them with jasmine necklaces as they disembarked.
“It’s huge for me to be re-opening my shop and it warms my heart to see life return to the village,” said 39-year-old Haifa Dargouth.
Tunisian authorities, who ordered high security for the visit, hope to lure back the big cruise operators who have abandoned the country for the past 18 months since the gun attack on the capital’s Bardo National Museum.
“The arrival of the liner ‘Europa’ does not in itself signal the resumption of cruise liner activities in Tunisia,” said Malek Ghanemi, head of La Goulette’s cruise liner terminal.
“But it’s very important because it sends out a positive and reassuring message,” he said.
Gabriella, a tourist from Berlin, was all smiles as she headed off for Tunis medina, or old city, a Unescolisted World Heritage Site. “I’m not scared at all,” she said. Tourism Minister Selma Rekik Elloumi attended a special ceremony later on Thursday, underlining the significance of the ship’s stopover for a key sector of the Tunisian economy.