Figures from the Moroccan Tourism Observatory confirm the (small) decline in foreign tourist tourism. Professionals believe that the promotion is insufficient, while the Moroccan offer is competitive. All indicators are at half mast. This situation is masked by overall official figures which include RME movements.
Three elements limit the damage of the 2016 tourist year:
-the holding of COP22
-national tourists who improve hotel occupancy rates
-arrivals of MRE, Moroccans living abroad.
The figures from the tourism observatory at the end of October (before the COP) confirm this. For the first 10 months of the year, arrivals of foreign tourists staying at border crossings fell by 3.3% and those of MRE increased by 4%. So that the overall figure of arrivals reached 8.9 million tourists (+0.4% compared to the same period of 2015).
France, which remains the main source market for Morocco, is down 2%.
The overall number of hotel nights increased by 2% during the same period. Marrakech and Agadir generate 60% of total overnight stays. The average overall occupancy rate is 40%.
The overall revenue generated by the travel activity of non-residents was 55.4 billion dirhams at the end of October, compared to 53.3 billion dirhams for the same period in 2016 (+3.9%).
Professionals contacted by Médias24 make a rather fierce reading of the figures and deplore the lack of promotion in France, the main source market, which is in decline:
-MREs save the day: 3.7 million arrivals from January to October 2010, then 4.4 million for the same period of 2015 and finally 4.6 million in 2016.
-MREs now quite clearly exceed foreign staying tourists: 4.6 million from January to October 2016 for the former; 4.3 million for the latter, for the same period.
-Always during the same period (October-January): the hotel occupancy rate, still in Marrakech, was 51% in 2010 and 48% in 2016.
-The hotel occupancy rate fell in Agadir from 61% in 2010 to 51% in 2016.
-Arrivals of foreign tourists staying in Marrakech fell in 2016 by 13% in 2016, compared to 2015 and by 2% compared to 2010.
In a situation where there is only one government managing day-to-day affairs, tourism is left to its own devices. The 2020 vision appears like a distant and out of reach dream.
Source: https://www.medias24.com/MAROC/ECONOMIE/ECONOMIE/169366-Derriere-les-chiffres-officiels-la-stagnation-du-tourisme-etranger-de-sejour-au-Maroc.html
