Morocco’s Car Rental Industry Booms: Tourism and Business Drive Growth

In Morocco, 138,000 cars are rented out across the country, but the market is far from saturated, analyzes La Vie Éco. "As long as Morocco remains a tourist destination, as long as Moroccans living abroad continue to return to the country for their vacations and as long as companies continue to use the services of rental agencies, they will continue to exist," explains the weekly.

It is an activity that "is doing well," assures the owner of a rental agency quoted by the media, emphasizing the existence of fairly strong demand. "We tend to think that it is a seasonal activity, which works better during the summer period than the other seasons, but not at all," he argues. A minimum budget of 900,000 dirhams, intended for the acquisition of five cars worth 170,000 dirhams each, is required to start the activity.

Professionals, however, deplore the lack of bank financing to cope with the costs. "Banks consider our activity to be high risk and are wary of granting loans. We then resort to finance companies, which are less skeptical," laments another owner of a car rental agency.

Clearly, the activity does involve major risks, but it generates a net profit that can reach 40%, or more than 400,000 dirhams (without the cost of depreciation), according to the weekly’s forecasts, based on a full rental rate of four cars.