Tunisia's tourism federation furious at 'secret prostitution' comment

Swimming pool at a tourist resort, Djerba, Tunisia On Tuesday, the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies and Tourism confirmed its intention to file a lawsuit against the government consultant and deputy in the National Constituent Assembly of the Islamic Renaissance Movement, Abou Yaareb El Marzouki, who described the tourism sector in Tunisia as “secret prostitution”.
In a statement to Arabstoday, Mohamed Ali Toumi, president of the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies and Tourism, said “we asked him to apologise but he didn’t, which means he made this statement deliberately,” adding “we also asked the National Constituent Assembly and the government to clarify their position about what was said by the deputy of the Islamic Renaissance Movement, who is also a special advisor to the Prime Minister, but there wasn’t any reaction against this statement which affected all players in Tunisia's tourism sector, therefore we are forced to defend ourselves and defend the sector in which we work.”
Abou Yaareb El Marzouki, during a session of the 9th conference of the movement (12-15 July) said:  “You know that tourism is actually secret prostitution” which aroused laughter from many government officials who were present at the session, including Rafiq Abdel Salam, minister of foreign affairs.
Mohamed Toumi said that any person working in the tourism section in Tunisia "would be hurt by such a statement" adding that his organisation had received many phone calls from around the world expressing "astonishment and concern about this unapologetic statement by a senior official.”
Minister of Tourism, Elyes Fakhfakh, described the statement as a joke. In a press conference held last Friday the minister said “Abou Yaareb El Marzouki was joking,” while stressing the importance of preserving the image of Tunisia for the development of the tourism sector,"which no-one doubts its importance economically."
These statements came amid welcome news about the recovery seen in the tourism sector, which during the first half of this year has recorded increases of  35.8%  in revenues, 41.5% on arrivals level and 74.2% in terms of number of tourist nights spent in Tunisia in comparison to the results over the same period last year.
Revenues from the tourism sector in the above-mentioned period reached $735 million compared to $541.40 million, while the number of tourists visiting Tunisia in the first half of the last year has increased to 2.502 million tourist (1.768 tourists in the same period last year). Number of tourist nights reached 10.902 million nights, compared to 6.643 million nights last year.