Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech is on an official visit to Tunisia as guest of his Tunisian counterpart Minister Tidjani Haddad to conduct the proceedings of the 4th session of the Tunisia-Malta 4th Mixed Commission in the field of tourism.

Minister Zammit Dimech is accompanied by a group of Maltese tour operators who are participating in a workshop with Tunisian tour operators to discuss new areas of cooperation between Malta and Tunisia, including targeting of niche markets and developing a common tourist product to attract remote generating markets.

Minister Zammit Dimech yesterday inaugurated a cultural month in the Medina organised by the Embassy of Malta in Tunis. The event called Malta Hanina will commence with an art exhibition at the prestigious Palais Kherreidine where Maltese contemporary artists, Maltese traditions arts and crafts and maritime history shall be displayed for a month. Maltese traditional music shall also be performed in the streets of the Medina and at the Club Tahar Haddad by NAFRA accompanied by an introduction to Maltese food.

A series of seminars shall also accompany the exhibition where university professors and Maltese and Tunisians of Maltese origin living in Tunis shall trace Malta’s contribution to Tunisian history in the 19th and early 20th century. It will encourage Tunisians and Maltese to discover their rich common cultural heritage. This event also launches an important year for Malta and Tunisia whose diplomatic relations were officially established 40 years ago and which were recently given renewed significance through the reciprocal visits of President Ben Ali to Malta in 2005 and President Fenech Adami in 2006.