African Airlines and Tourism Face Steep Challenges Amid COVID-19 Crisis

In an interview with challenge.ma, Oumnia Boutaleb indicated that the crisis in the air sector in Africa is not new. The global health crisis has only brought to light a malaise that was waiting for the last straw to overflow. Before covid-19, it represented only about 5% of the total market share. And will have to face the aggressive strategy of other companies that will want to recover from the consequences generated by the pandemic at all costs.

Even if some African companies have stood out for their poor management that does not say its name, there are still some success stories on the continent, such as Royal Air Maroc or Ethiopian Airlines, which according to the international relations analyst, "have managed to get out of it by making ingenious decisions". They have not been spared by the health crisis. They have respectively lost 50 million DH and 500 million dollars per day and are in great difficulty, but "they will still manage to recover unlike other companies on the continent," explains challenge.ma.

According to the study, Africa should expect a loss of $28 billion in GDP this year, not to mention the estimated 3.1 million job losses. For Morocco, "it is expected that it will record a decline of 3 to 6.5% for the year 2020, the largest contraction of GDP in the last 25 years". RAM, despite the difficulties, intends to preserve as many jobs as possible while safeguarding the company’s interests and to achieve this, "the company will have to reduce its expenses to the maximum".

As for Moroccan tourism, it has been impacted like everywhere in the world, and the way out of the crisis will be gradual, through strategies and political will. A real blow for Morocco, whose tourism industry represented 6.9% of GDP in 2019. In recent weeks, the authorities have started several projects to revive the sector, hoping that the players in the tourism chain will get through it without too much damage.

In any case, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced that "Morocco’s tourism industry was the 7th most affected by the covid-19 crisis". As a result, the analyst believes that "this should motivate the government to put in place incentive measures for domestic tourists in order to be able to rely on domestic tourism as a relay," specifies the same source.