With the closure of international borders, Moroccans wishing to take a vacation after the end of confinement will have no other choice but to stay in Morocco. If for a professional from Marrakech, this situation will certainly cause internal tourism to take off, the president of the Atlas Voyages group, Othman Cherif Alami, thinks quite the opposite by affirming that the current offer of hotel structures is not at all adapted to the budget of local customers.
The Minister of Tourism, Nadia Fettah, announced that the resumption of activity in the tourism sector would first go through domestic tourism.
Will the nationals be there after the end of confinement? Everything will depend on the summer offer that the sector will reveal for Moroccans.
In the meantime, opinions differ. Some say that operators are already adapting their products to attract nationals, many of whom they believe want to frequent hotel establishments, while others expect a moderate influx given the inaccessibility of the classic hotel offer for mass tourism.
A summer among Moroccans
Joined by Médias24, a professional from Marrakech-Safi-Essaouira affirms that the region’s CRT prepares 3 summer products for national tourists focused on the ocean, the desert and the mountains.
Based on the constraints (closed borders) and prospective studies, our interlocutor affirms that certain operators expect, for the first time in their history, to fill up with a 100% Moroccan clientele.
“At the end of confinement, they think that Moroccans will travel en masse and will even cause big traffic jams on national roads.
Hotel products for Moroccans
“Foresighted, they have set up accommodation camps 30 kilometers from the ocher city where clients can stay in the Agafay desert, an ideal area for lovers of space and the outdoors.
“Another project, led by travel agencies from Marrakech and Casablanca, offers nationals hotel products between Safi and Essaouira which have around fifteen magnificent beaches with a largely affordable package of between 500 and 1,000 dirhams per night,” reveals our source, adding that there will also be products for those whose purchasing power has deteriorated with the crisis.
“To eliminate health risks and reassure as many Moroccan tourists as possible who are supposed to replace foreigners, the public authorities are developing with hoteliers a framework of preventive measures such as, for example, a distance of several meters between each family summer visitors at the beach.
Rural tourism will dethrone the big hotel chains
“Moroccans will certainly favor local tourism in the hinterland which is not usually crowded.
“Our studies show that this type of tourism has a strong chance of exploding but it will be to the detriment of large urban hotel chains whose prices remain inaccessible for many families and which people will be wary of given the pandemic is more urban than rural.
“No large hotel in urban centers should therefore be full and some should even remain closed at least until the return of foreign customers who have a more suitable budget than local tourists.
“For those who do open, there will be strict controls from the authorities to check whether they comply with the health safety measures which will become the norm in the hotel industry.
“But the only establishments capable of obtaining a correct occupancy rate will be those which offer affordable rates which do not exceed 1,000 dirhams per night, for an entire family.
“The other large structures at 2,000-3,000 DH will either have to fall into line or remain closed and wait for the borders to reopen and the return of foreign tourists to stay,” concludes our interlocutor for whom this will not be the case before December.
« A large part of the hotel park will be open in August »
Questioned about the agenda for reopening the hotel park, Othman Cherif Alami, CEO of the Atlas Voyages group, thinks that the pandemic should be brought under control before the summer and that sanitary devices with strict standards will be operational in hotels at the end of June, and at the latest at the beginning of July
“From this date there should be a gradual deconfinement between the cities to arrive, perhaps, at a wide opening of establishments on August 1.
“If the openings will extend from July 1 to August 1, many hotels will not reopen soon like in Casablanca where there will still be no business tourists and a good part of the Moroccan clientele who loved to come there will no longer be able to afford a 4 or 5 star hotel
“For the same reasons, several club hotels in Marrakech will not open before October 1,” explains the boss of Morocco’s 1st tour operator.
Tangier-Tetouan and Agadir, main destinations for nationals
On the tourism products that should work in July and August, Alami says that the results of a recent survey by his group highlighted three major destinations.
“The one that gets the most votes is the northern Tangier-Tetouan region where there is a strong demand for rental of furnished apartments or villas and hotel stays in 4-star or 5-star vacation clubs for a period of one week to ten days.
“Secondly, the city of Agadir is in a good place thanks to the seaside resort of Taghazout which has numerous hotel units.
“In total, between the North and Agadir this represents around 80% of national demand, i.e. an attractiveness of 50% and 30% respectively.
“The last 20% is made up of the Atlantic axis Essaouira-El Jadida-Casablanca where we have already had a certain number of online reservations for July and August,” reveals Alami.
No upcoming price reduction for hotel stays
Asked whether the prices of hotel stays would fall to adjust to the budget of nationals, the president affirms that this is not the case at Atlas Voyages or even Booking.com.
“The absence of price adjustment can be explained by profitability constraints.
In fact, when you open a hotel with 400 rooms and you only operate 200 rooms because you cannot rent more, you still have to pay the rent for the 400 rooms. Ditto for the price of annual hotel insurance which does not change and cannot be divided by the number of actual customers.
“So to give you a concrete example, at the seaside resort of Saïdia, the night in an all-exclusive formula at the Iberostar hotel is always 2,000 dirhams.
The large charges therefore prevent this type of large structure from lowering prices to accommodate more domestic tourists who have less purchasing power.
Mass tourism avoids hotels to rent more affordable apartments
According to our interlocutor, mass tourism is turning more towards apartments than hotel products.
« In fact, domestic tourists prefer furnished apartment rentals like in Martil where the night costs on average 600 dirhams for a family of 4 people compared to more than 1,000 at a hotel.
“If the recommendations of the 2020 vision which provided for the construction of 20 Biladi stations had been carried out, we would have been able to accommodate a much larger number of internal tourists in these kinds of low-cost Club Med.
Not enough low-cost infrastructure for internal tourism
“The problem is that there are very few like, for example, Ifrane which will surely be crowded this summer.
Thus, its apartments which have a living room and two bedrooms are very successful because not only are they located in a fabulous environment but they also cost only 350 to 450 DH per night.
“Apart from the lack of accommodation infrastructure adapted to the budget of the majority of Moroccans, the poor parents of tourism, namely the campsites, are in a lamentable state without any maintenance.
“This lucrative niche could be developed by creating at least thirty campsites with time-share mobile homes in magnificent locations with all the possible comfort and equipment (swimming pool, infirmary, sports fields, etc.),” regrets Alami, concluding that for all these reasons, internal tourism will certainly not be what we hoped for next summer.
source: medias24.com
