Morocco’s World Cup Success Fuels Tourism Boom in Marrakech

In Marrakech, tourism professionals are smiling. The ochre city "is full right now! And it will certainly be the case until the end of September," wrote the travel booking site Marrakech Best Of in its Instagram story, inviting tourists to "book everything." According to the site, tourist activities are often fully booked two or three days in advance, and some pools and restaurants are booked out weeks in advance.

No surprise there. In 2022, the number of tourists who visited Morocco reached 10.9 million, a significant increase compared to 3.7 million the previous year, according to data from the Marrakech Regional Tourism Council. "We recorded an increase of more than 12% (in arrivals) in December 2022 compared to December 2019," Zakaria Harti, an official at Marrakech Menara airport, said in February to VOA Africa.

This upturn, Marrakech owes it to the exceptional run of the Atlas Lions at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Morocco became the first African and Arab country to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.