The North remains among the favorite destinations of Moroccans. In addition to Tangier, where domestic tourists have represented half of all visitors for several years, domestic tourism continues to take precedence over other traditional growth markets such as Spain and France in other northern tourist areas in terms of arrivals and overnight stays. According to the latest official data communicated, Tetouan, Chefchaouen and Larache managed to attract, in 2017, some 119,723 Moroccan visitors, an increase of 15% compared to the same period of 2016. They represent more than 2.5 times the number of international tourists who visited these three provinces during the same period.
In addition, classified hotel and tourist accommodation establishments in the provinces of Tétouan, Chefchaouen, Larache as well as the M’diq-Fnideq prefecture achieved 441,641 overnight stays in 2017 compared to 359,052 in 2016, an increase of 23%.
National visitors, with an average stay of three days, contributed, during the same period, with some 310,575 overnight stays. An increase of 26% which was achieved mainly during the three months of July, August and September. While the visit of 46,098 international tourists was at the origin of 131,066 overnight stays at the end of December 2017, therefore showing an increase of 16% year-on-year.
Four-star hotels also managed to achieve some 131,290 overnight stays there in 2017, allowing them to position themselves at the top of all classified accommodation establishments. Those with three stars, for their part, accumulated 893,104 nights. This earned them second place compared to other classified accommodation establishments in this region. Third place went to tourist residences, which had some 57,125 overnight stays at the end of December 2017. They are followed by five-star hotels (40,520 overnight stays), two-star (29,370), one-star (23,724) and guest houses (4,312).
It should be noted that out of the total of 46,098 international tourists who visited Tetouan, Chefchaouen and Larache in 2017, Spain (10,711) and France (9,911) remained at the top of the tourist source markets for the region. The tourist potential of these three provinces allowed them to attract, during the same period, other nationalities, particularly Americans (5,322), Arabs (3,864), Belgians (1,885), British (978), Dutch (941), Germans (939) and Swiss (522).
source: today.ma
