Two months before the end of the year, the positive trend continues for tourism indicators. Indeed, arrivals increased by 9%, or a total of 9.71 million tourists at the end of October 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 (8.88 million). Referring to statistics from the Tourism Observatory, it appears that the main improvements in terms of arrivals from European markets continue to increase. Thus, arrivals of foreign tourists for stay (TES) recorded an increase of 14.3%, or 4.86 million tourists.
The performance of the arrivals register is thus attributed to source markets such as France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom which showed a notable growth rate in the first 10 months of the current year. At this stage, the rate of French tourist arrivals at the end of October 2017 recorded an increase of 9% with 1.35 million tourists, followed by Spanish tourists (14%) with 575,177. In third place, English tourists recorded an increase of 5%, or 403,193. In fifth place, German tourist arrivals recorded an improvement of 28% at the end of October, or 268,998.
This positive development also concerns the arrivals of Moroccans living abroad. According to statistics from the tourism observatory, these arrivals recorded an increase of 5% compared to the same period last year, with no less than 4.8 million tourists. By point of arrival, air transport recorded an increase of 14% compared to the end of October 2016. In this dynamic, Agadir Al Massira airport experienced the largest increase in arrivals (19%), followed by the two Mohammed V airports and Marrakech Menara airport with 12%.
Concerning overnight stays spent in classified tourist accommodation establishments (EHTC), these also recorded an improvement. An increase of 15% in the rate of accommodation in the main tourist destinations in Morocco compared to the same period in 2016 was noted, for a total of 18.7 million nights at the end of October 2017. Based on the rate of change in nights spent in EHTC, the ocher city continues to attract tourists since it experienced the highest increase (18%), i.e. 6.5 million nights at the end of October, followed by Agadir Ida-Outanane (12%) with 4.7 million overnight stays and Casablanca (11%) with 1.76 million overnight stays.
This momentum was accompanied by changes in revenues generated by tourist activity. In this sense, travel revenues experienced a notable increase of 5.3% compared to the same period of 2016, thus recording a total of 59.10 billion dirhams in revenue at the end of the first 10 months of the current year compared to 56.11 billion dirhams at the same period in 2016.
