Israel-Morocco Direct Flights Launch, Boosting Tourism Between Nations

The two Israeli airlines El Al and Israir, which launched their first flights to Morocco on July 25, as well as the third, named Arkia, which will be operational as of August 4, plan to transport 38,000 passengers from Israel to Morocco before the end of this year. For its part, Morocco estimates the number of passengers to be transported to Israel at around 12,000 during the same period, said tourism expert Zoubir Bouhoute to Challenge, specifying that if the number of Israeli tourists were to approach 50,000 by the end of the year, Morocco should expect 200,000 in a normal year or even more.

Although the health situation in Morocco as well as in Israel has been worrying again in recent weeks, the situation is under control in terms of deaths. In addition, progress in vaccination in both countries also confirms the level of determination of the two partners in the fight against the pandemic, the expert added. For example, in Israel, 5,283,198 people are fully vaccinated, or 58.4% of the population, and 5,755,067 have already received the first dose of the vaccine. In Morocco, 9,739,655 people have already been vaccinated with the two doses, or 26.7% of the population, and 11,568,127 people have already received the first dose, he added. However, the conquest of this market will actually resume in 2022, he noted.

For the record, between 2010 and 2019, the number of departures of Israeli tourists abroad increased from 4,269,100 to 9,178,600, an increase of more than 115%. In addition, total outbound tourism expenditure excluding air transport increased by +96.1% in six years. As for the average expenditure per tourist between 2012 and 2018, it was around $950, he specified.