The 30th edition of the Lisbon Tourism Exchange (BTL), of which Morocco is the guest of honor, opened its doors on Wednesday with a strong presence of Moroccan professionals who came to highlight the national tourism product.
The director of the delegation of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT) in Lisbon, Abdellatif Achachi, welcomed this large presence of Moroccan exhibitors at this show, which, according to him, will create more business opportunities and thus develop tourist flows to the Kingdom. These are a dozen professionals, notably representatives of the regional tourism centers of the regions of Tangier-Tetouan, Oriental and Fez-Saiss as well as tour operators, travel agencies and hoteliers, he said, noting that the various participants are determined to make participation in this event a success.
And to recall in this sense the launch last October of a flight linking Lisbon to Fez which is added to the link which already existed linking the Portuguese capital to Tangier, without forgetting that Saidia is the first destination for the Portuguese, which explains, according to Mr. Achachi, the strong participation of the three regions. Regarding the choice of Morocco as guest of honor, the ONMT delegate said that beyond the symbolism of this distinction which gives a very positive image of Morocco in the neighboring country, this will have an impact on Portugal’s tourist commercial behavior. “When the image of a country is more positive, it provides more opportunities to develop business”, he said. Mr. Achachi also indicated that thanks to the efforts and actions of the Office, in collaboration with its partners, in particular the Portuguese TOs, Royal Air Maroc and TAP Portugal, “we were able to reach the record of 87,000 arrivals at border crossings in 2017, an increase of 26% and +19% in terms of overnight stays”.
