his memorandum of understanding reflects the willingness of both parties to cooperate in supporting FTADD’s long-term sustainability, their continued support of the small and medium-sized enterprises that are FTADD members, and their promotion of Destination Dahar to increase visitor spending in the destination. Working in partnership, USAID Visit Tunisia and FTADD will help achieve various objectives of the USAID Visit Tunisia activity by supporting public and private sector partners to enhance and diversify the tourism industry by improving tourism management at the regional level and improving the marketing of innovative tourism products and experiences. The USAID Visit Tunisia team will assist FTADD develop and implement an organizational business plan to ensure financial sustainability of the organization and a destination marketing plan to promote the destination and FTADD’s members.

FTADD is Tunisia’s first destination management organization (DMO), a term for a local tourism organization that unifies all tourism players in a destination (guides, hotels, attractions, restaurants, and more) to collaborate and facilitate better marketing, visitor experience, overnights, and tourist impact. Though this model of facilitating sustainable and equitable tourism for inhabitants and visitors is common worldwide, it was a new concept in Tunisia. The development of the FTADD DMO was financed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and realized by SwissContact, through the Project Destination Sud-Est. The DMO was officially created in March 2018.

The Dahar region is the geographical area in the southeast of Tunisia, which stretches from the Mediterranean coast to the Sahara desert. It takes its name from the sandstone mountain chain, The Djebel Dahar, with 100km in length, crosses three administrative governorates: Gabes, Tataouine, and Medenine. The DMO has given tourism players across these governorates a collective space to work together.

As of 2022, nearly 90 percent of the Dahar region's tourism providers are members of FTADD, validating strong support from the community. Through collaboration with USAID Visit Tunisia, these local tourism businesses will continue to grow, flourish, and realize their full potential.

This MOU formalizes a months-long process of communication and collaboration, including multiple site visits to the region. The Visit Tunisia team is extremely optimistic about the future of this union, and greatly believes in the potential of this DMO to elevate Tunisia’s tourism offerings and expand international awareness to a new level.