The film's effects on Tunisia's tourist industry were overwhelming. "Our holiday bookings from the UK went up by almost a quarter in 1997, and continued to increase substantially to well over a quarter of a million in 1998," says Ann Noon of the Tunisian Tourist Office in London. Tour operators were not slow to jump on the bandwagon, and English Patient desert safaris mushroomed, incorporating locations featured in the film - most are easily accessible to holidaymakers prepared to break away for a few days from coastal resorts such as Hammamet, Sousse and Monastir.

Many of these locations are only a couple of dunes away from those that form the backdrop for the new film Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. And if the brooding features of Ralph Fiennes and steamy passion among the sand dunes boosted Tunisia's stats in '97, the number of tourist arrivals this year and next will surely skyrocket after the latest Star Wars "prequel" opens. It has its American premiere on May 19 and opens in Britain on July 16.

The huge film set in the Tunisian desert was built to represent Anakin's home planet, Tatooine. No mean feat this; everything for cast and crew - tents, toilets, washing machines, elaborate props - had to be transported through shifting dunes and across the Chott, where mud under the salt crust once engulfed a 1,000-strong camel caravan.

To transport the gear, a special road was constructed across the desert, a route our own safari driver thankfully used as a short cut to Tozeur.

I can also vouch for the unpredictable nature of the conditions that virtually wiped out the set, a desert storm of 120mph destroying the entire base camp and most of the "planet" on only the third day of shooting last August.

The leading UK Tunisian specialist, Panorama Holidays, recently bought out by mass-market giant Airtours, has started the Star Wars ball rolling by launching the first four-day safari excursions. The firm already takes more than 100,000 holidaymakers a year to Tunisia and, says Panorama marketing executive Michelle Hamilton, "We're expecting Star Wars to create even more of an impact than The English Patient, so we've rushed out a new programme of excursions."

In order to cope with the tourist influx, a number of cave hotels have sprung up (or down, to be more accurate). One of them, the Sidi Driss, featured in the original Star Wars movie.

Extract taken without permission from The Times, April 11 1999 

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Tataouine Tours will soon be operating a 2 week trip to Tunisia. It will encompass all the Episode One, Two and Four locations, and will include flights to Tunis, internal flights, car hire, ferry transport and half-board accommodation.