The general director of the “Hivernage collection? », Ahmed Bennani explained during an interview the contours of tourism recovery. Among other things, he spoke on the impact of the health crisis, the program contract, the resumption of activities and the opening of borders.
Addressing the question of the impact of the health crisis on tourism activities, Ahmed Bennani indicated that the sector is going through an unprecedented crisis. Players in the sector missed out on the big spring 2020 season, and all activities were put on hold from mid-March. Additionally, with travel restrictions, local tourism has also struggled. From his analysis, it appears that the year 2020 was real chaos for the tourism sector.
In the opinion of Ahmed Bennani, interviewed by L’Observateur du Maroc, what has been done by public authorities to revive the sector is not enough. The professionals have all decided that there will be no recovery without the opening of borders and the resumption of regular flights to facilitate the arrival of partners and tourists. Without access to the territory, reviving the sector would be a vain attempt. Continuing, he deplored the fact that the ONMT had not been active for seven months. His point of view arises from the fact that the partners were not informed of the measure to reopen the territory to tourists and the possibility of hotel reservations. He indicated that the communication campaign led by the ONMT was not up to the challenges of the moment.
Regarding the program contract, he declared that the objective is to maintain jobs, given the insufficiency of state aid. Better, he regretted the complicated procedures for access to bank financing for hoteliers, while hoping for borders to open this week in the hope of saving the first quarter of 2021. Ahmed Bennani also suggested that antigenic tests be put at airports, for the arrival of tourists in order to facilitate their entry and movement.
Regarding the resumption of tourism based on forecasts, the manager bet on 2023, while others are thinking of 2022 or even 2025. For him, we must find favorable solutions, to quickly revive this important sector as Turkey has done, which has already opened its borders and reached an occupancy rate of almost 40%.
source: bladi.net
