Morocco’s Tourism Industry Calls for Urgent Rescue Plan Amid Prolonged Crisis

"After more than 15 months of a complete halt in activity, the total lack of visibility as to the way out of this crisis, the collective is calling for serious and immediate measures, both to try to safeguard what remains of the tourism production tool and to maintain a semblance of social peace, and to allow a relaunch of the activity." This is the cry from the heart of the collective, underlining "the social and economic dimension and the distress in which all the stakeholders in the tourism industry find themselves," reports Médias24.

Aware of the government’s responsibility to ensure health security for the community, the professionals propose a crisis exit plan and the relaunch of the sector. It is structured around 6 points:

• Extension of the IF mechanism (the flat-rate allowance of 2,000 dirhams and the measures related to it) for at least 3 months after the lifting of the state of health emergency;

• Extension for all employees in the sector of the deferral of loans and installments until the lifting of the state of health emergency;
• Total lifting of restrictions on inter-regional movement;
• Gradual and step-by-step reopening of international traffic, prioritizing the vaccinated and, failing that, negative PCR tests, from June 15, 2021. All to be announced without delay and in advance, so as to allow all the links in the chain (national and foreign) to reschedule for these deadlines;
• Prioritized vaccination of sector employees;
• Alignment of Morocco with the EU health pass mechanisms, in order to be able to integrate into the general programming of international airlines and tour operators.