confirmed dead and warned that the toll is likely to rise.
The British government cautioned on Sunday that other attacks “are possible” in Tunisia, urging visitors to remain vigilant.
The attack was swiftly claimed by the Islamic State group, the extremist organisation that has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and carried out a wave of attacks around the world.
It came just three months after another IS-claimed attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis killed 21 tourists and a policeman.
It was carried out on the same day as a suicide bombing that killed 26 people at a mosque in Kuwait, which was also claimed by IS, and a suspected Islamist murder at a factory in France.
With its hundreds of kilometres of coastline, turquoise waters, stunning archaeological sites and relatively low prices, Tunisia has long attracted European tourists.
But the tourism industry — which accounts for seven percent of Tunisia’s GDP and almost 400,000 jobs — has been reeling since the 2011 revolution that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine ben Ali was followed by a rise in Jihadist attacks.
Authorities had announced a nearly 26 percent drop in the number of foreign visitors in April compared with the same month last year.
There has been a huge exodus of shocked tourists since Friday’s attack, with British and Belgian tour operators saying they had flown out some 2,400 visitors by late Saturday. Hundreds more were expected to follow on Sunday.
Shops were open early on Sunday in Port El Kantaoui, an AFP reporter said, and about a dozen tourists could be seen lying on the beach near the site of the attack.
Many in Tunisia have questioned the ease with which the gunman entered the resort and how he was able to kill so many before being shot dead.
“What happened is the sign of security failures,” said Rached Ghannouchi, who heads the country’s second-biggest political party, the Islamist Ennahda.
Analysts say that despite promises from the authorities, it will take a large-scale reform of the country’s forces to ensure better security.
Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Centre said the police must face “badly needed professional improvements and organisational reforms” for Tunisia to have “an effective, pro-active and successful strategy against terrorism”.
In the past four years, dozens of police and soldiers have been killed in clashes and ambushes attributed to Jihadists — mainly in the western Chaambi Mountains.
While Tunisia has a tradition of secularism and a strong civil society, disillusionment and social exclusion have fuelled radicalism among the country’s youth, with the country exporting some 3,000 Jihadist fighters to Iraq, Syria and neighbouring Libya.