Morocco Considers Holiday Voucher Program to Boost Struggling Domestic Tourism

While air borders are still closed to international tourists, due to the resurgence of new infections, the authorities have opted for domestic tourism. After a few months of experience, this palliative measure has experienced an unprecedented failure.

According to La MAP, this bill aims to encourage domestic tourism through the holiday voucher mechanism initiated by the Istiqlalien Group of Unity and Egalitarianism. This is an initiative that comes a few weeks after the adoption of the 2020 Amended Finance Act, which provides for an exemption from Income Tax (IR) on benefits and bonuses granted to employees in the form of holiday vouchers.

Instituted in France since 1982, the holiday voucher represents an aid benefit whose objective is to promote the departure of employees on vacation. It makes a wide range of transport, hotel and catering services accessible in a logic of social cohesion and the fight against exclusion, specifies the same source.

According to Fouzi Zemrani, vice-president general of the National Confederation of Tourism (CNT), this innovation could strengthen the fight against the informal sector and support the development of structures that fulfill their tax and social obligations. Continuing her explanations, she specifies that it could be a kind of bonus jointly funded by companies and the State, to which a voluntary contribution from employees in the form of vacation savings would be added.

According to her, civil servants will be able to access vacations for the greatest number. It should also improve hotel occupancy rates and create a dynamic of domestic tourism. In detail, some 4.5 million people have benefited from holiday vouchers in France, reaching a net issue volume of 1.67 billion euros.