TUNIS, June 15 -- At least 3.37 million tourists have visited Tunisia until June 10 this year, up 5.3 percent from the same period last year, private radio station Mosaique FM reported on Saturday.

"The total number of tourists is likely to reach 10 million by the end of this year," Aymen Rahmani, director of studies and international cooperation at the Tunisian National Tourist Office, was quoted by Mosaique FM as saying.

From Jan. 1 until May 31, the number of nights spent in Tunisian hotels reached 5.87 million, an increase of 6.4 percent compared to the same period in 2023, Rahmani noted.

Tourism is an important sector of the Tunisian economy, representing 9 percent of the country's GDP and offering nearly 400,000 jobs.

The Tunisian tourism sector has experienced the worst crisis in the past decade, as it was hit by the Arab Spring uprising in 2011 and the terrorist attacks at the Bardo Museum in the capital, Tunis, and a beach resort in Sousse in 2015.

  - Xinhua