Sousse Governorate

Sousse exists because of olives and harbors. Since the Phoenicians established a trading post here in the 9th century BCE, this coastal settlement has metabolized whatever the Mediterranean offered—agricultural exports when Rome demanded grain, defensive fortification when Arab conquerors built the ribat fortress in the 9th century CE, and beach tourism when European package holidays discovered its shores in the 20th century. The medina, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, preserves the DNA of 2,800 years of adaptation. Today's 762,281 residents (2024 census) live in Tunisia's second-largest tourist destination: 115 hotels with 40,000 beds spanning the Sousse-Jawhara, Sousse-Medina, Sousse-Nord, and Sousse-Sud zones. An olive grove covering 2,500 km² still anchors the agricultural economy—the same crop that attracted Phoenician traders now supplies olive oil exports. Two new tourist zones at Hergla and Bouficha will add 20,000 beds, representing deliberate ecosystem engineering to capture more of Tunisia's $2.3 billion tourism revenue (2024). Sousse demonstrates what biologists call phenotypic plasticity: the same geographic advantages (harbor, climate, fertile hinterland) expressing different economic forms across millennia. By 2026, the 10.2% tourism growth trajectory suggests Sousse will strain against carrying capacity—the same pressure that collapsed other Mediterranean resort towns when infrastructure couldn't match visitor volumes.