Tunisia’s tourism sector stands on the brink of a major transformation driven by advances in artificial intelligence (AI), according to an analysis published by the Arab Institute of Business Managers (IACE).
Titled “How AI is Redefining the Tourism Industry in Tunisia”, the report notably recommends focusing on the creation of a national incubator dedicated to technologies applied to tourism, named TourTech.
According to the report, the role of TourTech* would be “to serve as a development framework for Tunisian startups active in AI, augmented reality, or predictive management applied to tourism.”
It would also “serve as a collaborative platform for developers, tourism institutions, researchers, and public actors, as well as a tool for accessing open data, targeted funding, and an international network of expertise.”
The document refers to the World Economic Forum’s “Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024” and reviews the experiences of other countries in the region, such as Spain, France, and Morocco.
It notes that the countries most likely to succeed in the AI transition “are those that manage to combine digital efficiency with human richness, particularly by training tourism professionals in new tools while maintaining a high level of personalized interaction.”
International experiences in tourism innovation and incubation
Several countries have successfully integrated AI and technological innovation at the core of their tourism strategies, creating dynamic ecosystems that support smart and sustainable tourism.
In France, the France Tourisme Lab network is recognized globally as a leader in tourism incubation.
This network brings together nine specialized incubators and accelerators, having supported nearly 400 startups and advanced numerous projects nationwide.
Among them, Welcome City Lab in Paris stands out as the world’s first incubator exclusively dedicated to tourism.
It has fostered the emergence of dozens of startups incorporating advanced technologies such as predictive flow management, digital heritage enhancement and multilingual voice assistants for tourists.
In Morocco, Technopark Casablanca has become a central pillar of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, supporting over 3,500 businesses and creating more than 15,000 jobs.
Initiatives like the WISE Accelerator Bootcamp and Deep Tech Summits.reflect Morocco’s ambition to become a regional technology and education hub.
These efforts promote the integration of advanced technologies into tourism, particularly in digitalizing tourism services and intelligently managing visitor flows.
Other countries, like Spain and the United Arab Emirates, are also developing tourism innovation hubs, incorporating predictive technologies for capacity management, digital twins of destinations, and behavioral analytics platforms for visitor insights.
A tourism & technology incubator: TourTech
To draw inspiration from the pioneering models of France, Morocco, and Spain, and to deeply root innovation in Tunisia’s economic fabric, the top priority should be the creation of a national incubator specialized in tourism technologies, named TourTech.
Tunisia already has strong foundations to host such an initiative, particularly through the presence of smart technology parks such as those run by the Tunisian Technology Parks Company (S2T). These parks offer the necessary infrastructure for innovation, startup support, and cross-sector synergies.
TourTech would serve as a growth platform for Tunisian startups working in AI, a collaboration hub for developers, tourism institutions, researchers, and public stakeholders, and a gateway to open data, targeted funding, and global expertise, the report concludes.
