Since its creation in 1964, the Tunisian Federation of Travel and Tourism Agencies (FTAV) has remained the first and leading professional trade union organization working to protect, further, and develop the interests of travel and tourism agencies in Tunisia. With 6 regional offices, FTAV represents the evolving needs of the travel and tourism agency industries and the interests of their members in developing strong tourism at the national level. The union is made of 740+ members.

FTAV’s commitment to supporting tourism across the country makes them the perfect group for USAID Visit Tunisia to collaborate with under the third component of the project, enabling environment and creating a climate for sustained growth.

This memorandum of understanding reflects the willingness of both parties to cooperate to support the management, development, and implementation of a program known as the Tourism Federations and Associations Capacity Building Program. This project will be deployed in two phases to train selected federations and associations on key topics such as organizational enforcement, governance, marketing and communication, resource mobilization, and professional development.

This program will extend for several years, starting first in the capital Tunis, and then extending the program to other cities and governorates across the country to ensure the benefits of the program extend to members of the association, the hundreds of hardworking tourism businesses. The learning modules developed will be accessible on the FTAV online platform, which will be continuously updated with the support of USAID Visit Tunisia. Digitizing the material and uploading it to an accessible e-learning platform will ensure the sustainability and efficacy of the training program and modules into the future.

In press coverage of the MOU signing by TUNISIE.co, Tunisia’s leading online tourism news outlet, USAID Visit Tunisia Chief of Party Leila Calnan highlighted her excitement for the collaboration by noting, “USAID Visit Tunisia is very pleased to enter into this agreement. It’s been a very good experience this last year working with the association to identify how we might support their important work going forward.”