"I'd like to stay here to carry on with my holiday but Ramadan is a holy month and I usually spend it with my family," he said as he waited for a shared taxi to take him back across the border to the Algerian town of Annaba.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year falls right in the middle of the holiday season and hundreds of thousands of visitors have packed their bags and gone home — leaving Tunisia's tourism industry to count the cost.
Tunisia is particularly exposed to the drop-off in business because out of the seven million visitors who come in here in an average year, about three million are Muslims from neighboring Libya and Algeria.
So while tourists from Europe have stayed on, most visitors from Libya and Algeria have already gone. As a result, many hotels, restaurants beaches and cafes are half empty, according to resort officials and hoteliers.
"It seems that the season has finished even before it started," said Imed Zid, a hotelier in Sousse, a resort town about 150 km (93 miles) south of the Tunisian capital.
"Most of our North African clients have already left," he said. "Despite the advertisements, the discounts, the special activities planned, Arab tourists insist on going back home."
Ramadan is traditionally spent at home because the month includes a strong emphasis on family gatherings.
The timing of Ramadan shifts slightly each year in relation to the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world because it is fixed according to the Islamic calendar, which counts 354 or 355 days in every year.
Tunisia needs tourists. Unlike Algeria and Libya, the country of 10 million people does not produce large amounts of oil and gas. Tourism is the biggest foreign currency earner and the second biggest employer after farming.
Each year tourism contributes about $2.4 billion to the state budget, or about 20 percent of revenues.
In the hope of protecting that income, the sector has been trying to persuade Muslims that they can mark Ramadan and be on holiday at the same time.
RAMADAN VACATION
The tourism ministry said hotels will serve "suhoor," or pre-dawn breakfast, musical evenings will be laid on and swimming pools and beaches will stay open at night so people can make the most of the time when they are not fasting.
Slim Tlatli, the tourism minister, said taxis and buses would be provided to ferry tourists from their hotels to nearby mosques for "Taraweeh" prayers, the special night-time prayers offered during Ramadan.
There has also been a marketing drive, with advertisements run on Algerian radio and special deals offered to travel agents, local newspapers have reported.
But at the tourist resort of Hammamet, which is mostly frequented by Libyans and Algerians, the campaign was not enough to prevent a sharp fall in bookings.
"It is clear that the number of Arab tourists will fall by at least 50 percent during the month," said Fethi Trabelsi, a hotel official at the tourist resort of Hammamet, which is mostly frequented by Libyans and Algerians.
"The bookings are already down and many hotels are beginning to reduce their prices" he said.
It is a problem that Tunisia's tourism industry will have to get used to because Ramadan will clash with the tourism season for another six or seven years.
This year the holy month began in Tunisia on Aug. 11 and each year it will get earlier, by increments of 10 or 11 days.
"Tunisia must work to diversify its tourism products and not adopt temporary solutions," Mohamed Bargaoui, an expert in the tourism sector, told Reuters.
Waiting for his taxi to head back to Algeria, Rabeh Lounassa said he needed to spend at least some of Ramadan with his family. But he said he could be tempted to return. "Maybe I'll come back in 10 days. We'll see," he said.
