Tunisia is naturally bilingual (Arabic/French), with a strong English-speaking component in tech and tourism. A well-built multilingual website can double or triple your potential audience. But it's not necessarily right for every business.
When is a multilingual site justified?
- Tourism sector: clients come from multiple countries (FR/EN/AR essential)
- Export and international trade: B2B with foreign partners
- Tech startups targeting MENA and European markets
- NGOs and associations with international donors
- Professionals attracting expatriate clientele
Arabic: watch out for RTL direction
Arabic is written right-to-left (RTL). Technically, this requires inverting the entire layout: navigation, text, icons, margins. A site that ignores RTL for its Arabic version gives a very poor impression to Arabic-speaking users.
Cost of a FR/EN/AR trilingual site
A trilingual site costs approximately 1.5 to 2 times the price of a single-language site, depending on content volume. Quality translation (not Google Translate) is the most important investment.