Morocco Expands Air Links with China, Anticipating Tourism Boost

Morocco is expecting a massive influx of Chinese tourists this year with the launch of these two lines to Casablanca. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, a record 180,000 Chinese tourists had visited the kingdom, compared to 170,000 visitors in 2018. With the closure of borders, this number fell to 27,979 in 2022, before rising to 59,719 in 2023, reports Challenge, recalling that Chinese tourists have set their sights on Morocco since the visa exemption in 2016, the fruit of the strengthening of Sino-Moroccan cooperation.

As part of this cooperation, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) recently signed 16 agreements with Chinese travel agencies in Beijing to ensure a good occupancy rate. The Moroccan airline plans to serve Shanghai and Guangzhou and increase the number of flights to Beijing from three to seven per week. Good news for economic operators and tourists from both countries.

With 100 million travelers spending more than $120 billion a year globally, China is the world’s largest tourism market in terms of volume and revenue. As a result, it is one of the priorities of the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT), which is working to attract as many tourists as possible to the kingdom this year, i.e. an additional 2.5 million, in order to consolidate Morocco’s position as the leading tourist destination in Africa with 15.9 million arrivals by the end of November 2024.