On March 18, two gunmen targeted the National Bardo Museum in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, dealing a severe blow to a country that was the cradle of the Arab Spring and is highly dependent on tourism.
The dead tourists were from Italy, Japan, France, Spain, Colombia, Australia, Britain, Belgium, Poland and Russia.
A Tunisian policeman was also gunned down. Yesterday, the death toll rose to 22 after a Frenchwoman succumbed to injuries sustained in the attack.
The attack was "a big blow, but this blow did not kill us, it made us stronger", Tourism Minister Salma Elloumi Rekik said on television yesterday.
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President Beji Caid Essebsi will host the foreign dignitaries including his counterparts from France, Francois Hollande, and Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski, as well as the Palestinians' Mahmud Abbas.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Algeria's premier, Abdelmalek Sellal, as well as the foreign ministers of Spain, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, and the Netherlands, Bert Koenders, are also expected.
The Bardo's doors were open on Friday to schoolchildren and students only, and an AFP journalist said bullet holes could still be seen on some of the walls inside.
"I was a little (scared) but now that we are here I can see that things are safe," Lena Bottlender, a 17-year-old German student, told AFP.
Tunisia has seen an upsurge in Islamist extremism since overthrowing longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, but has taken pride in forming a democratic government since the Arab Spring - in marked contrast to countries such as Libya, Syria and Yemen.