Thomas Cook to restart Tunisia holidays after shift in UK travel advice

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Tour operator Thomas Cook (Frankfurt: A0MR3W - news) will restart holidays in Tunisia after Britain softened its travel advice to the north African country, the firm's boss said on Thursday.

Britain said on Wednesday that it was no longer advising against travel to most of Tunisia after tightening its advice following a gun attack in a Tunisian resort in June 2015.

Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser said that the decision was unexpected and a positive for Tunisia and the tourism industry.

"The foreign office came to the conclusion that it is again safe to travel. We didn't have any programme for the winter so we are setting up a really good quality offer for Tunisia and this is going to take some time," he told reporters.

"I suppose that we are going to start during the winter season, but more towards the spring."

He also said that travel to Turkey had not been affected by increased tensions between Germany and Turkey, and said that Turkey remained attractive despite a warning by the German government for its citizens to be careful when traveling there. (Reporting by Alistair Smout, editing by James Davey)