Abdellatif Hmam, Director General of the Tunisian National Tourist Office (ONTT) has just been promoted Secretary of State for Trade. While announcing the Open Sky and displaying a restructuring program of the ONTT that is being set up slowly but surely, its promotion is being considered as a brake for tourism that struggles to take off again? By Amel DJAIT

Abdelatif Hmam, a state clerk, is a native of Nabeul. A graduate of ENA, he served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Energy, and has long been a missionary in the Ministry of International Cooperation and various other departments. At CEPEX, for more than four years, he has gained experience in the export of Tunisian products and services throughout the world. Abdelatif Hmam is also a well-known conductor for the organization of Tunisian pavilions in universal exhibitions (Shanghai 2010 and Milan 2015, etc.)

Born on February 20, 1960 in Nabeul, Abdelatif Hmam arrived at the ONTT with Selma Elloumi, current Minister of Tunisian Tourism. The DG was essentially involved in the restructuring of ONTT into 3 separate agencies (promotion, training and investment) and was engaged in an in-depth and in-house battle to extend the prerogatives of the Tourism Promotion Agency to the branding of Tunisia .

Behind the scenes, this mission is also strongly requested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which affirms itself to be the most appropriate to carry the image of the country and its promotion. It is then that a real lobbying is put in place to carry out a battle that the Presidencies of the Government undertake and the Presidency breaks out. Beyond the budgets it will mobilize, the mission of the branding of the country is one of the biggest emergencies of Tunisia and one of the most prestigious missions.

Finally, while it is indisputable that the promotion of Hmam is widely deserved for this incontestable bosseur and that Trade is an area that he knows well, it is nonetheless true that the DG had trouble with a party Of his teams and that the pace of the Office was perhaps too slow for him.

But the most important is probably the message sent by Youssef Chahed, Head of Government to the sector. Does tourism provoke the anger or disdain of the head of government? Does it not add up to a sector of expertise at a time when the market is beginning to see the beginning of a recovery? How can the current minister, Selma Elloumi, do without a DG who has taken the time To know his office and its mechanisms and which has finally begun a substantive work that its many predecessors could not do?

Continuity in the administration of tourism is as usual interrupted, which slows down all the good initiatives made so far …. So really is it a failure and mat for a sector that is becoming more commonplace And which if it were to be invested and considered could be saving for an economy on the brink of bankruptcy!

The big question of the moment is of course that will replace Abdelatif Hmam at the head of the ONTT? All that remains is to hope that the Office will be able to produce its own Dg, because the next boss of ONTT must understand the functioning of its structure and move forward very quickly. If once again, the future Dg of the ONTT would be chosen outside his bowels, it will take time! A time that neither the structure nor the tourism and still less the destination has.

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