Here's a piece on the wider subject: https://fpif.org/the_economics_of_the_arab_spring/

It doesn't directly make the connection, but it does allude to it:

> The recent global financial, food, and energy crises accentuated the failure of economic liberalization to adequately spread the region’s wealth. Significant declines in the tourism, financial, and real estate sectors due to the financial crisis crippled the few well-functioning economic engines.

In other words: these already economically and politically unstable nations were tipped over the edge by the shockwaves of the global financial crisis.

I also wonder whether the impact of a decline in tourism is being understated; both Tunisia and Egypt are/were tremendously popular holiday destinations among Europeans, and with the rise in austerity, I can easily imagine a decline in this tourism causing economic problems in those nations.