Morocco Slashes Tourism Budget by 24% Amid Crisis, Maintains Key Airport Investments

"Small budget for tourism for a big crisis year", this is the formula used by l’Economiste, to report on the decline in the forecast budget of the Ministry of Tourism, specifying that the planned reduction for this year is 24%, or 627 million dirhams. Operating and training are the most affected, with 53% and 20% cuts respectively.

The budget of the tourism engineering company (Smit) is down 18% (134 million). As for the ONMT budget, it is maintained at 300 million dirhams, while competing countries are betting double, even triple, laments the daily. Regarding air transport, the extension work on the infrastructure, mainly the new terminal in Rabat-Salé, will continue for 1.6 billion dirhams of investment, the same source pointed out.

To recall, Moroccan tourism, which accounts for 7% of GDP, has recorded a severe cut, with a 78% drop in arrivals between January and September to 2.2 million. Not to mention that foreign exchange earnings have fallen by 92%. The implementation of recovery loans for SMEs and hotels, developed by the supervisory department, has so far allowed 1,198 companies to benefit from financial aid measures for 684 million DH.