Some travel agencies which had between 30 and 40 reservations per day before the Covid-19 crisis are currently recording between 1 and 2 reservations per day. week.
The evolution of the pandemic, with the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus, is destroying the hopes of recovery of a sector which continues to be disaster.
Dwith a view to slowing the spread of coronavirus variants, the Moroccan authorities have taken the decision to suspend flights from and to several countries, to name only Turkey, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.
France, one of the Kingdom’s main economic partners, has also decided to close its borders to countries outside the EU except for essential reasons. France requires a negative PCR test for any entry into its territory. Despite vaccination campaigns which are expanding in several countries, the recent evolution of the pandemic is marked by the arrival of new variants of the coronavirus which are causing concern among public authorities.
We must admit that the current international context is not conducive to the revival of tourism Moroccan. A sector devastated by the pandemic in 2020 and which had generated more than 78 billion DH in 2019. The coronavirus has also proven to be harmful for the more than 1,400 travel agencies in the Kingdom, resulting in 11,000 direct jobs. The recent evolution of the pandemic has somewhat frozen the hopes of professionals working in this sector. They were counting on a tremor in the first quarter of 2021.
Desolation takes precedence
Asked about activity in the first quarter of 2021, Fatiha El Jafri, tourism department manager at Tam Voyages DMC, describes a disastrous situation. “For the moment, we receive between 1 to 2 reservations per week. Knowing that before the crisis, the number of reservations fluctuated between 30 to 40 per day. Our team was always busy because of the agency’s corporate business before the pandemic,” she reveals.
Worse still, the number of reservations from companies is around two per month. Our interlocutor also mentions the draconian conditions for leaving Morocco and going to France. Which is hardly conducive to business travel. “For example, one of my clients who was just in transit in France to go to the USA, had difficulty leaving France. The authorities require a compelling reason for leaving,” she explains.
Where the problem lies
The drastic drop in activity contributed to the significant decline in agency turnover of travel during the first two months of 2021. Travel agencies in difficulty had the possibility of using the monthly fixed compensation from the CNSS set up within the framework of the Economic Monitoring Committee (CVE) and financed by the Special Covid-19 Fund. Remember that the compensation, which will be provided until March 2021 to employees and employees under integration contracts on temporary work stoppage, amounts to 2,000 DH.
Some travel agency bosses have opted for reduced working hours (1 day out of 2) in order to guarantee employees half of their salary. Structures that have strong backs have made the effort to leave their employees’ salaries intact initially, before reversing this decision by reducing working hours.
>Our interlocutor is formal. Several travel agencies have simply closed. “Despite the credits guaranteed by the State in the pandemic context as well as the multiple mechanisms put in place (deferral of due dates for credits, taxes and social security contributions), several travel companies which do not have significant equity have not held up”, regrets the manager of TAM voyages DMC, who points out that the absence of regular cash inflows for most travel agencies dates back to the beginning of March 2020.
Ultimately, in terms of activity for the current year, professionals prefer be careful and above all not harbor false hopes. “We are waiting to see. Everything will depend on the evolution of the pandemic situation in European countries and nationally. It is impossible to envisage a return to normal without the eradication of this scourge. Which may still take time”, concludes Fatiha El Jafri.
source: fnh.ma
