Morocco’s Tourism Industry Faces 78% Drop in Arrivals, $600 Million Revenue Loss

On Monday, during the parliamentary session devoted to oral questions, the Minister of Solidarity and Social Development, Jamila El Moussali, representing her colleague from the Ministry of Tourism, said that the first quarter of 2021 shows a 78% drop in tourist arrivals compared to the same period in 2020. This will lead to an equivalent decrease amounting to a loss of 5.3 billion dirhams (601.71 million dollars) in Morocco’s tourism revenues, a 69% drop year-on-year.

Parallel to this development, the volume of travel to Morocco has recorded a 70% drop according to the minister, stating that this underperformance of air traffic should persist until 2023 with a full recovery expected in 2024.

Faced with this rather gloomy picture, the Minister will report on the various easing measures taken by the government to support and revive the tourism sector. A contractual program 2020/2022 has been implemented to preserve jobs and the economic fabric as well as to structurally transform the tourism sector.

Still on the list of measures, the program aims to guarantee sources of income for tourism professionals and to provide access to social security, as well as to facilitate and accelerate the recovery of the sector by laying the foundations for the development of a sustainable tourism sector. With a contribution to travel agencies, tourist restaurants, local tourist guides and owners of tourist transport. A monthly financial aid of up to 2,000 dirhams (227 dollars) from the National Social Security Fund (CNSS).

To complement this battery of measures, Jamila El Moussali also announced that the Ministry of Tourism has extended the exemption from tax revenues for employees registered with the CNSS until June 30, 2021.