Official Tunisia.com Blog

Hi all!

This week I am back in the office after spending last week in sousse. It was a good week where myself and Ramzi got a lot done including some new photos of the centre of sousse and the port to refresh the travel guides. We also managed to have a nice meeting with the folks of El Mouradi Hotels whom came across as a very dynamic and professional company and it is always nice to meet the people behind some of the hotels and logos that you see driving passed on the sides of buses and land-cruisers in many parts of Tunisia. El Mouradi and many other leading tourism companies from Tunisia are currently exhibiting in the WTM exhibition in the Excel Centre in London.

http://www.wtmlondon.com/

I wish all of the folks success during the event where many of them are sharing a stand with the Tunisian National tourism office (www.cometotunisia.co.uk) I have had the pleasure of meeting many of the companies in my few months in Tunisia and if anyone is visiting the show please feel free to say hello! Also say where is Tunisia.com!

Over this next week I am trying to sort out meetings with more hotel companies (it is the marketing season for them) and also trying to get down to the sales offices of Tunis Sports City and Sama Dubai as I am getting asked all the time for some articles/photos of these mega projects. Then I am thinking about going home for a couple of weeks to blighty to see the folks and show sara the motherland which is going to cost me a fortune especially as Hajer apparently needs another wife visa as we work outside the UK which is another 1200 dinars!!

Website wise I should be adding updated content for Nabuel, Soussse, PEK and Utique over the next week or so which I hope that you will enjoy and will make you want to go and visit :-). Following the design update of a couple of weeks ago we are also continuing to tighten up the design of the things to do sections and tweaking the little issues as we find them.

One of my biggest issues at the moment is populating the events section which I have high hopes for but it is difficult to get specific information about events in a suitable time frame, even in the newspapers here it will say massive event on monday next week (too late for foreign visitors) Tunis (huge city) and will play host to x and y (no schedule). Such bad marketing and PR is the bane of many events in Tunisia for example excellent products such as the Bizerte festival where never confirmed to me and I only got heed when a speaker truck drove passed telling me that it was to start tomorrow. I would also be a rich man if I got a dinar for every-time I drove passed a poster in hammamet which gave details of a concert that I would have liked to go to but was last week. I am a firm believer that adding value for tourists via the provision of festivals and events is a key differentiator from other destinations but we need to allow those visitors to plan to come for another example http://www.tabarkajazz.com has 2007 on it! and believe me this is an excellent event!

end of moan

All things considered a good week thanks be to god! Most importantly my little Sara is coming along nicely.

She is now 1.4 years old and runs about and is now starting to speak,well make word sounding noises. I try to speak english to her all the time and at the moment she has the following Vocab.

Tunisian Arabic (spelt phonetically),

Speaks

Shoof (show)

Haka (look)

Hub Hub (woof woof)

Hee Jar (Hajer=MUM)

Hazeezhi (aziz = dad and grandfather)

Aye (slang yes)

Baba (which I thought was me but it turns out is almost everything)

Understands all of the above +

Atini (give)

im shee (get going)

Lea (no)

Yerkut (stop moving)

Coul (eat)

Zeaza (titties/boobies) for culinary reasons

Hajer gives up chasing Sara!

.......................................

English

Speaks

No!

Dad Dad Dad

Daddie

Mum Mum

Cat

Understands above +

Thank you

you look lovely

Go drive the car (takes keys and runs to car, puts key in ignition= dangerous)

Karen (my mum)

TV

Sit

I am gonna get you (runs away)

Teletubbies

Hey my name is Iggle Piggle (in the night garden is addictive as crack for under 5s)

So far the only issue I have with Sara is (as warned by my mother) is that having a baby is experiencing stress like you have never felt before and you sit there just looking at them, someone that needs you for everything. She is growing so fast that I just cannot believe that I am her dad and that it was only July 30th last year I had no daughter at all!