Like other tourism stakeholders, professional tourist transporters have been hit hard by the coronavirus health crisis. They demonstrated to demand the activation of the 2020-2022 program contract, signed in August, which should guarantee the support and recovery of this struggling sector.
Due to the globalization of the health sector, medical tourism has experienced a real boom in recent years. Aware of this opportunity, Morocco intends to explore all the links in the value chain and strengthen the strategy to be put in place for the development of this activity which generates more than 80 billion dollars per year worldwide, i.e. a potential for annual growth of 30%.
Mohamed Sofi, director of the Moroccan National Tourist Office in Spain, discusses in an interview the impacts of the health crisis on the tourism sector and the Spanish contribution to the development of tourism in Morocco .
The Moroccan Society of Tourist Engineering (SMIT) organized a webinar on February 4 on tourism investment between Morocco and China.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has just signed an agreement with Immohold Hospitality for the opening of the InterContinental Rabat in the first quarter of 2022. This agreement allows the group to lay the foundations for its ambitious projects in Morocco.
The vaccination process that began a few days ago in Morocco is raising so much hope among tourism professionals. Battered by the recession due to the health crisis, these players are eagerly awaiting the dawn of a new era for their sector. The country will be able to become frequentable again, and the sector will regain its breath.
Since the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel, the demands are increasingly strong from Israelis who want to visit Morocco, and vice versa. This will be effective as soon as direct flights between Rabat and Tel Aviv are set up, says the chargé d’affaires of the Israeli liaison office David Govrin, who says he expects a "spectacular increase" in the number of Israeli tourists in Morocco.
The Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) is rushing to the aid of the tourism sector, one of the most affected by the coronavirus crisis and a major provider of foreign exchange and jobs.
Marrakech has been named one of the most popular destinations in 2021. The ochre city ranks 13th worldwide, far ahead of Florence (18th), Lisbon (21st) or even New York (22nd) and Santorini (23rd), according to the specialized site TripAdvisor.
This year again, Marrakech is featured in the top 52 best destinations, published annually by the NY Times. In the past, the ochre city has been included in many global top lists.
From January to November 2020, Moroccan tourism revenues fell by 51% due to the consequences of the health crisis. But the decline had a mitigating factor of 76% a month earlier, due to the arrivals of Moroccans living abroad, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Due to the health crisis, Morocco’s guides are experiencing great precariousness. For more than ten months, the efforts of the associations representing this professional category of national tourism have been focused mainly on coordination with the authorities, to obtain the lump-sum allowance. This is slow in coming.