Tunisia’s president has admitted security services were not prepared for last week’s extremist beach massacre, as authorities warned the country is likely to lose more than half-a-billion dollars in tourism revenues.

Tunisia's president has admitted security services were not prepared for last week's extremist beach massacre, as authorities warned the country is likely to lose more than half-a-billion dollars in tourism revenues.

Friday's carnage -- which saw an extremist gunman kill 38 people, mostly British holidaymakers, at a seaside resort -- was the second attack on tourists in Tunisia claimed by the Takfiri group ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant) in just three months.

President Beji Caid Essebsi said security had been boosted in other areas for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which has seen Takfiri violence in previous years, but that authorities had not expected beaches to be a target.

"It is true that we were surprised by this incident. Arrangements were made for the month of Ramadan, but they never thought (measures) had to be taken on the beaches," Essebsi said in an interview with French radio broadcast on Tuesday.

On Friday a Tunisian identified as 23-year-old Seifeddine Rezgui pulled a Kalashnikov assault rifle from inside a beach umbrella and went on a bloody rampage at the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel in Port El Kantaoui near Sousse, south of the capital Tunis.

ISIL swiftly claimed the attack. The Takfiri group had also claimed responsibility for killing 21 tourists and a Tunisian policeman at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis in March.

After the Bardo museum attack, the extremists threatened new violence, with ISIL sympathizers tweeting under the hashtag #IWillComeToTunisiaThisSummer.

"It's not a perfect system," Essebsi told Europe 1 radio.
"If there were failings, disciplinary action will be taken immediately."

Tunisia vowed new security measures in the wake of the attack and on Wednesday is to deploy 1,000 armed officers to reinforce tourism police along its Mediterranean coastline.