Morocco’s Tourist Hotspots Closed: Transport Industry Faces Crisis Amid COVID-19 Surge

Many understand the rationale for the decision, but regret that it was sudden. "The decision took us by surprise as much as most citizens who had planned to go there to celebrate Eid Al Adha." While the 3rd phase of the gradual deconfinement was coming into effect, the government had to "take the bulls by the horns" to deal with a situation that seemed to be escaping it.

The management of the Transport and Logistics Federation (FTL) explains that "this measure takes with it any hope of recovery in the transport sector". The real problem for road passenger transport is "the lack of visibility in the very short and short term, regarding the general resumption without interruption of activity," reports L’Économiste.

According to the same source, during the confinement period, companies in the sector, "all modes combined", experienced huge drops in their turnover. Tourist transport and intercity road passenger transport experienced a total halt in their activities, and faced enormous difficulties. The difficulties also reached the driving school sector, personnel transport and road freight transport and logistics, causing "layoffs at the level of VSEs and SMEs, threatening the disappearance of several hundred jobs and the bankruptcy of the most vulnerable small businesses".

With the restrictions in sight, given the intensity of the spread of Covid-19, "the situation in the transport sector, all modes and trades combined, is strongly dependent on the evolution of the pandemic in Morocco". For the post-covid period, "the recovery can only be gradual and will probably not reach its pre-crisis level until 2022, or even 2023," the Transport and Logistics Federation advances.