The Tunisian Smart Cities association, co-organizer of the 30e edition of the Route du Jasmin, unveiled the outline of the roadmap for the development of a national strategy aimed at developing the pleasure tourism sector in Tunisia. It is, in fact, a series of measures that could make this sector one of the most important pillars of development, through an intelligent mix between the tertiary and industrial sectors with a significant employment capacity…
In this context, TSC offers:
— Development of the organizational and legislative component
– Create a national structure for supervising recreational nautical activities (like the Agency for Ports and Fishing Installations -Apip-), while allowing it to conclude agreements and award concessions directly, in within the framework of a partnership between the public and private sectors (National Agency for the Development of Yachting – Andp)
– Allow this structure, with all its components, to program and study pleasure port projects with public or private bodies, with the obligation to inform the various ministries and departments concerned to express their opinion — d from a technical point of view only — and this, in coordination with the local authorities.
– Allow this structure to delegate all or part of the public services of the project, with the possibility of its participation in “project companies”, specialized in the creation of ships or marinas, with also the possibility of creating free zones reserved for pleasure tourism and nautical leisure
– Unify and digitize the administrative and customs procedures related to the navigation of pleasure boats and marinas and determine the role of each authority involved through a flexible and multilingual platform.
– Revise the Code of maritime ports, and especially the role and the missions of the port authority and the occupant of the port, and document them in the form of annexes attached to the concession and partnership contracts.
– Adjust the professional competence needed by the port authority.
– Coordinate with the Ministry of Transport in order to revise the legislation relating to paying passenger transport according to specifications specific to each mode of paying passenger transport, whether in the context of entertainment through platforms specially designed for this purpose or within the framework of maritime public transport.
— Development of training in the field of pleasure boating:
– Carry out a sectoral study of trades related to the nautical pleasure activity
– Prepare a training program for commanders and officers of seaports in the areas of management, control, security, safety, environmental preservation, salvage and maritime affairs.
-Create training centers for ship driving, intended for recreational maritime navigation in marinas
— Development of activities, services and infrastructures
– Develop a technical file on the state of marina infrastructure.
– Develop services in the ports (free market, free internet at the quays, specific applications for pleasure boating, training centers for driving pleasure boats, etc.)
– Create new mooring areas for tourist cruises in the Center and South of Tunisia.
— Strengthening competitiveness at regional level
– Digitize the administrative procedures relating to the circulation of pleasure boats in general and remove all procedures relating to the circulation of pleasure boats between Tunisian ports and limit them to simple announcements via the digital platform.
– Promote the environmental dimension and approve environmental quality labels (labelling, blue flag certification)
-Establish incentives for the industrial sector, repair and services related to pleasure craft in general and traditional maritime industries in particular, and stimulate the preservation of traditional marine know-how threatened with extinction.
— Development of the communication component
-Develop a communication strategy on these measures as a first step to motivate international investors in the yachting sector to invest in Tunisia.
-Support all events organized in Tunisian marinas and participate in some international yachting events.
– Join international organizations in all maritime areas such as the International Confederation of Mediterranean Marinas (Cippm), the International Association of Port Cities (Aivp), the International Association of Cruise Lines (Clia)
– Assign a tourist character to certain sustainable marine activities to promote them within a new developed Tunisian tourist product (pescatourism).
— Lifting of restrictions and unification of the customs regime in this area
-Remove the restrictions imposed on the movement of pleasure boats at the maritime borders
– For owners of foreign boats residing abroad, replace the offenses with a special tax for the navigation of foreign boats (tourist and navigation tax for a pleasure boat) and remove the 36-month period for temporary admission of ships
– For owners of foreign boats residing in Tunisia: modify the taxes, adopt an annual or special tax on their final return, determined according to the age of the boat, its length and its thrust force (like vehicles) .
-Extend the period of temporary admission for the means of maritime transport imported by the passenger residing regularly abroad and coming to reside temporarily in Tunisia
– Exempt Tunisians residing abroad from paying taxes on pleasure boats within the limit of boats with a length of 10 m in general, and 16 m for sailing boats.