Morocco’s Tourism Industry Urges Border Reopening Amid Unprecedented Crisis

Addressing the issue of the impact of the health crisis on tourism activities, Ahmed Bennani indicated that the sector is going through an unprecedented crisis. The industry players missed the big spring season of 2020, and all activities were halted from mid-March. In addition, with the restrictions on travel, domestic tourism has also been in difficulty. From his analysis, it emerges that the year 2020 has been a real chaos for the tourism sector.

In Ahmed Bennani’s opinion, interviewed by L’Observateur du Maroc, what has been done by the public authorities for the relaunch of the sector is not enough. All professionals have decided that there will be no recovery without the opening of borders and the resumption of regular flights to facilitate the arrival of partners and tourists. Without access to the territory, the recovery of the sector would be a vain attempt. Continuing, he deplored the fact that the ONMT has not been active for seven months. His point of view stems from the fact that the partners have not been informed of the measure to reopen the territory to tourists and the possibility of booking a hotel. He indicated that the communication campaign carried out by the ONMT was not up to the challenges of the moment.

Regarding the program contract, he stated that the objective is to maintain jobs, given the insufficiency of state aid. Moreover, he regretted the complicated procedures for hotel owners to access bank financing, while hoping for a border opening this week in the hope of saving the first quarter of 2021. Ahmed Bennani also suggested that antigenic tests be set up at airports for the arrival of tourists to facilitate their entry and travel.

Regarding the resumption of tourism based on forecasts, the manager bet on 2023, while others think of 2022 or even 2025. For him, solutions must be found to quickly relaunch this important sector as Turkey has done, which has already opened its borders and reached an occupancy rate of nearly 40%.