Marrakech has lost its millions of tourists due to the health crisis related to the coronavirus. Professionals, employees, merchants are facing a harsh and painful reality.
Morocco and Algeria are the big absentees of the summer in terms of tourist activity in France.
In Morocco, the Covid-19 allowance escapes employees and interns under insertion contracts on temporary layoff in the tourism sector. The number of beneficiaries is the cause.
The Minister of Tourism, Nadia Fettah Alaoui, the CEO of Royal Air Maroc (RAM) Hamid Addou, the CEO of the ONMT, Adel El Fakir and some representatives of the National Confederation of Tourism (CNT) including the president Abdellatif Kabbaj held a crisis meeting on Thursday in Casablanca.
Moroccan tourism professionals are gearing up for the winter season starting November 1st. It’s time for reflection.
The city of Dakhla is strengthening its attractiveness. Two corniche projects are currently under development to improve the city’s tourist offer.
While foreigners and business visitors can now disembark on special flights provided they have an invitation from companies and hotel reservations, Moroccan tourism professionals are waiting to be enlightened.
Seasonal tourist rentals have seen a slight improvement this summer, with an increase of more than 300% in demand, from 102,923 in February to more than 420,000 in August. This trend has fallen at the end of July due to the ban on travel between several cities in Morocco.
Morocco has been one of the preferred destinations of foreign tourists, especially French, for many years. Among these places visited, there is the Ziz Valley, whose beauty was the subject of a report broadcast on the TF1 news.
The government has acceded to some of the demands of tourism professionals by opening the borders to foreigners. A decision that brings a glimmer of hope to tourism operators who could no longer stand the chaos caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moroccan hotel professionals have not finished accumulating bad news and are pointing the finger at the government, which would be at the root of the failure of the summer season that is coming to an end. For them, the government bears its share of responsibility in the crisis in the sector, due to many unfulfilled promises.
All sectors of activity have been severely impacted by the current health crisis and continue to suffer bitterly from it. In Tangier, sellers of handicraft items commonly called bazarists speak of very heavy losses caused by an unprecedented slump in sales.