Terror in Tunisia: Express & Star investigates aftermath of deadly attack

The holiday resorts of Port El Kantaoui and Sousse are deserted and an estimated 40,000 workers have lost their jobs.

This week thousands of British tourists should have been enjoying the last of the winter sun during half term week.

But the Express & Star found these popular destinations for West Midlands' tourists completely empty.

Hotels and shops are closed for business. Some of them may never re-open.

Mehrez Saadi is the manager of the Imperial Marhaba Hotel which was targeted by the ISIS gunman Seifeddine Rezgui.

In his first interview with a British newspaper, he warns that unless British tourists return to the region, the terrorists will have won.

He said: "The British government needs to work with the Tunisian government to make sure British tourists are safe. If they take the easy answer and say 'don't go' then it is like a win from the terrorists. The terrorists want to de-stabilise our democracy. As it stands the terrorists have won.

"That is why we need Britain and other European countries to act."

Mr Saadi hopes of re-opening the hotel in March.

He says the region's economy had been left in ruins.

He said: "This is a huge tragedy for us.

"Imagine that every hotel here employs 200 people and now they are closed.

"We can't believe what has happened.

"We were the number one hotel in all of the region, now I am here alone with empty chairs, an empty hotel. This would never have seen possible." For the last three years hotels here have been between 60 and 90 per cent full.

Last year saw 420,000 British tourists flock to Tunisia – the highest ever recorded.

Numbers have been consistently rising after the Jasmine Revolution that saw the overthrow of dictator Ben Ali.

Now tourists are in effect banned from visiting the north African country after the government changed its advice to warn against all but essential travel.

Thirty-eight people were killed in the attack on June 26.

Thirty Brits were murdered, including three generations of one Black Country family: Joel Richards, aged 19, from Wednesbury, Adrian Evans, 49, from Bilston who worked at Sandwell Council, and 78-year-old Pat Evans also from Wednesbury.

Also among the dead was Staffordshire woman Sue Davey, 44, who is originally from West Bromwich.