Morocco Tourism Soars: Record Summer Sets Stage for 2025 CAN and 2030 World Cup

The strong influx of foreign tourists and Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) observed in July and August reassures with regard to the objectives announced in the roadmap. "The objectives set for Morocco remain easy to achieve," Zoubir Bouhoute told Madar21, considering that "higher figures could be achieved if the same momentum is maintained".

Morocco is expecting an influx of tourists on the occasion of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) and the 2030 World Cup it will host alongside Spain and Portugal, the expert recalled, explaining that these global sporting events will help create jobs and increase the kingdom’s tourism revenues. "The greater the challenge, the greater the ability to produce results," the expert said, calling for avoiding a "discourse of satisfaction and complacency" and for "raising the objectives to provide a greater effort".

The month of July recorded the arrival of 2.6 million tourists, an increase of 20%, while the first seven months of the year saw an increase of 15%, reaching ten million tourists. "At this rate, we could reach 16 million by the end of the year, a figure that exceeds the roadmap’s objective of 15.5 million by the end of 2024," Bouhoute said, stressing that "if this momentum continues, instead of reaching the 17.5 million target by the end of 2026, it would be possible to comfortably exceed 18 million tourists".

The tourism expert explains that "this recorded growth is due to the implementation of major incentives and the work done on air transport, which has allowed the development of traditional markets by adding many low-cost flights". As for overnight stays, they increased by 8% over the first seven months. As for tourism revenues, they increased by 3% during the period, Bouhoute continued, stressing the need to move from 17.5 million to 26 million tourists for the 2026-2030 period.