Is Tunisia safe?
 

After touring Morocco in early June with a tour company, I was supposed to take their 5-day post-trip to Tunisia. However, I am having second thoughts because I see that the State Department has placed it at Level 4, Do Not Travel, for COVID and terrorism reasons, although the areas we are supposed to visit are not in the dangerous areas. Also, the country's leader has recently become more autocratic, dissolving their Parliament and judiciary and granting himself emergency powers. The US has rebuked him and threatened to stop sending military assistance, so he may not be happy with us. I am leaning toward cancelling this part of my trip. Has anyone been there recently or have knowledge of the level of risk now?

You are asking the unknowable & what's true now, if we knew, may very well change by then. If you're feeling nervous about it just cancel, easy.

“The US has rebuked him” I doubt that the general population, will know or care that the government there has been told off by the US. The fact remains though that many Arab states view the US with great suspicion and this can sometimes be reflected in the attitudes of some of the people towards US tourists. I haven’t been there since the 70s and, given my experiences back then, have no inclination to return, ever!

You seem uneasy about going so what is the point? There are 190 odd other countries to choose from so just pick one that you would be more relaxed about.

To put things into perspective, have a scroll through the US Department of State information on Western European countries to see how they are rated.

Examples:

France - Level 4: Do Not Travel. ”Do not travel to France due to COVID-19. Exercise increased caution in France due to terrorism and civil unrest.”

Germany - Level 4: Do Not Travel. “Do not travel to Germany due to COVID-19. Exercise increased caution in Germany due to terrorism.”

United Kingdom - Level 4: Do Not Travel. “Do not travel to the United Kingdom due to COVID-19. Exercise increased caution due to terrorism.”

I’m not telling you to ignore State Department country information, but I’m a US citizen who lives in England. Should I not be here?

Excellent point Heimdall. I wonder what the US Department of State’s information would be for the US?

Good point
 

That is a good point, comparing the threat level to other countries in Euriope. However, I am also going to Morocco, which is only a Level 2. I wonder if the threat level nowadays is related to COVID more than anything else. If so, it really makes the designation less useful. Maybe they should leave the health threat level to the CDC and only rate the physical safety issue.

You have to read the wording carefully. It says “Do not travel to Tunisia due to COVID-19.” That is the CDC Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Tunisia.

Then it goes on to say “Exercise increased caution in Tunisia due to terrorism.” If you look at the Travel Advisory Levels, “Exercise increased caution” is the wording for Level 2.

The way I read it is that Tunisia is CDC Level 4 for COVID-19, and State Department Travel Advisory Level 2 for terrorism.

You can find the full Travel Advisory for Tunisia dated January 24, 2022 on the State Department website, going into detail about the areas in Tunisia it considers unsafe. Compare that with the tour company’s itinerary.

I’m going to give you the link for that travel advisory, but it may default to the main page.
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...s/Tunisia.html

Click on the [READ MORE] and it will bring up the full advisory.

Regarding the terrorism advisories, though one might think it makes sense to compare Morocco & Tunisia, it doesn't as Morocco has an historically stable government unlike some others in the region. I've spent quite a lot of time there including immediately after 9/11 when the State Department was actively warning against travel elsewhere in N. Africa. So I recommend not comparing when making decisions about where to travel.