In total, 10.3 million tourists visited Morocco during 2016, an increase of 1.5% compared to 2015, according to the Tourism Observatory.
10.3 million. This is the number of tourists who visited Morocco last year according to the Tourism Observatory cited by MAP. This figure represents an increase of 1.5% compared to 2015. In detail, if we note an overall drop in the number of foreign tourists (TES) of 0.9%, we note that the arrivals of Moroccans living abroad (MRE) increased by 4%, according to statistics published by the Observatory on Tourism in Morocco which are based on data from the General Directorate of National Security (DGST).
Arrivals of Spanish, Dutch and Belgian tourists increased by 2%, 3% and 2% respectively, while those from the United Kingdom, Germany and France showed respective declines of 6%, 2% and 1%, specifies the Observatory. The Chinese and Russian markets increased respectively by 32,329 and 23,921 additional arrivals compared to 2015, notes the Observatory.
Moreover, total nights spent in classified tourist accommodation establishments are up 4.5% compared to the end of 2015, driven by an increase of 1.4% for non-resident tourists and 11% for residents, again according to the Observatory which this time cites data from tourist accommodation professionals.
63.24 billion dirhams generated by non-residents
The two tourist centers, Marrakech and Agadir alone generated 60% of total nights during the past year, recording increases of 6% and 4% respectively. The other destinations showed contrasting results, with an increase in Casablanca (+6%) and Tangier (+9%), stagnation in Rabat and a decline in Fez (-6%).
The occupancy rate, which stood at 40% until the end of December 2016, remained unchanged compared to the same period in 2015. As for revenues generated by tourist activity, those of non-residents in Morocco amounted to 63.24 billion dirhams compared to 61.15 billion dirhams in 2015 (+3.4%).
The Observatory specifies that during the month of November 2016, the number of tourist arrivals at border crossings recorded an increase of 11.2% compared to that of 2015 (+14.4% for TES, and 7.4% for MRE).
Source: as is
