Marrakech Tourism Surges: Hotels Fully Booked for Eid al-Adha Season

Many Moroccan families have chosen this year to celebrate Eid al-Adha in Marrakech, a popular destination for foreign tourists and Moroccans living abroad (MREs) at the beginning of the summer season. Hotels and tourist accommodation establishments in the ochre city are fully booked during this Eid al-Adha period.

"Bookings increased by 9% in May compared to last year, while overnight stays increased by 14%. As for the Eid al-Adha holidays, all tourist infrastructures of the hotel club type are 100% full, and some hotels were unable to meet booking requests due to their range of activities adapted to this religious holiday," explains Mohsen Chafii, regional delegate of the Ministry of Tourism for the Marrakech-Safi region, to Hespress.

"The occupancy rate went from 72% in May 2023 to 78% during the same month this year, an increase of 6 points. As for the first five months of 2024, the number of visitors to tourist establishments increased by 6%, and overnight stays by 8%, from 1,218,800 in January 2023 to 1,288,000 in January 2024," added Chafii, specifying that the number of overnight stays also increased by 8%, from 3,687,384 between January and May 2023 to 3,984,992 during the same period in 2024.

This rush to Marrakech is due to "changes in the habits of Moroccans, especially affluent families, who try to spend this holiday in a joyful atmosphere without having to bear the efforts of slaughtering the sheep and domestic tasks," says tourism expert Zoubir Bouhout, adding that the coincidence this year of Eid al-Adha with the end of the national and regional baccalaureate exams has also "contributed to the influx of Moroccans to the hotel units of the capital of the Marrakech-Safi region...".