This archive report was first published on 17 May 2020.
On May 17, 2020, Tunisia's vital tourism sector was facing a severe crisis due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As the pandemic wiped out a recovery from jihadist attacks in 2015, the country's tourism sector was trying to find ways to avoid going under.
"Normally, the season starts now. But there is nobody," said Mohammed Saddam, who owns an antiques shop in the famous blue and white village of Sidi Bou Said, near the capital Tunis.
The North African country had registered 45 deaths from the COVID-19 illness, and for several days this week saw no new infections, putting it among Mediterranean countries faring relatively well in the pandemic.
However, the crisis had led to a shortfall in tourism revenues of six billion dinars (over $2 billion), the country's national tourism office had estimated, and some 400,000 jobs were at risk.
The sector had been bouncing back to levels not seen since before the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
La Marsa, on the outskirts of the capital Tunis, had just a smattering of locals on the beach for the time being.
"Tunisia had started off the year well, with an increase in (tourism) revenue of 28 percent," said Feriel Gadhoumi, a coordinator at the tourism office.
However, that all came to a halt in March as countries imposed travel restrictions and border closures to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Now, seaside resorts were empty and hoteliers were trying to salvage what they could of the season, counting on the country's relatively optimistic health situation and sector-specific virus prevention measures.
While most hotels had shut for now, some were providing accommodation for people in compulsory quarantine, notably Tunisians repatriated from abroad.
The tourism ministry was preparing protocols for facilities that reopen, with some planning to do so from June.
Measures were expected to include temperature checks at hotel entrances, rooms being disinfected and left empty for 48 hours between guests and the intensive cleaning of common areas.
Such steps were necessary to "regain the trust of partners," Gadhoumi from the tourism office said.
Other changes could include offering fixed menus instead of buffets and giving guests the same tables and umbrellas for the length of their stay, hotel sales manager Anis Souissi said.
Clients would focus "on health and hygiene," he added.
But it was unclear whether hotels, some of which were already on the edge of bankruptcy, would be able to make the necessary investments.
Even before the pandemic struck, a series of crises had weakened Tunisia's tourism sector.
After the political instability that followed the fall of Ben Ali, jihadist attacks in 2015 targeted European holiday-makers at the Bardo museum in Tunis and the coastal tourist resort of Sousse.
The attacks killed 60 people, many of them British tourists, and dealt a heavy blow to the sector.
The security situation had greatly improved since then, and tourist numbers last year had returned to pre-2011 levels, with 9.5 million visitors.
But the collapse in September of British tour operator Thomas Cook, which brought five percent of Tunisia's European tourists, shook some hotels.
Thomas Cook had suspended trips to Tunisia after the attacks, but had returned in force in the last two years.
Now, the sector was searching for ways to survive, as the coronavirus crisis persisted and as passenger flights from Europe, Tunisia's main market, were expected to remain grounded for much of the summer.
