According to figures revealed by the Ministry of Tourism, tourist arrivals reached more than 1,140,000 people during the month of June 2022, an increase of 5% compared to June 2019, which saw the arrival of 1,092,000 and 235% compared to June 2021.
Speaking on Tuesday July 26 in response to oral questions in the House of Advisors, Fatima-Zahra Ammor, Minister of Tourism, affirmed that the number of tourists has quadrupled compared to the same period in 2021, and represents 63% of the total arrivals recorded in 2019. Indeed, for the month of June alone, the number of tourists reached 1.14 million, an increase of 5% compared to 2019.
This growth was stimulated by the influx of 620,000 Moroccans living abroad (MRE) in June, an increase of 27% compared to June 2019. According to forecasts from the Ministry of Tourism, these arrivals should peak during the month of August.
“The recovery is taking hold little by little and the figures confirm this in particular with an increase of more than 5% in arrivals at the end of June following the massive influx of MREs. An observation which will also be supported by the statistics expected for the end of July, because it is the record month for Morocco in terms of international tourists staying and MREs. It is then very possible that we will reach two million arrivals including 1.3 million MRE and more than 600,000 or even 700,000 foreign tourists staying”, underlines Zouhir Bouhout, tourism expert.
Regarding revenues, these saw an increase of 173% compared to 2021, with a recovery rate of 71% compared to 2019.
“The increase in revenue also confirms that we are at more than 27 billion for the first half of the year and by the end of the year, we will perhaps be able to reach 65 billion. The same goes for arrivals, we can expect a total of around 8-9 million tourists, and for overnight stays, we will necessarily be around 18 to 20 million overnight stays. Generally speaking, the year 2022 will be concluded with a score of 70% to 80% in terms of arrivals and overnight stays and 80 to 85% in terms of foreign exchange earnings. We hope that the recovery will continue for 2023, and if we maintain this dynamic, it is very possible that we will be very close to the figures for 2019”, specifies the expert.
For his part, Mounir Aberkane, secretary general of the Federation of Travel Agencies and member of the Board of Directors of the CNT, maintains that despite a clear increase compared to 2021,“tourist revenues remain lower by more than 18.6% compared to those at the end of June 2019. Logically, we could not expect the figures or revenues for 2019 from this year. In terms of overnight stays, it should be noted that the recovery percentage at the end of June 2022 compared to the end of June 2019 is very low and different depending on the markets concerned. Domestic tourism has recovered to the tune of 80%. The French market, our leading emitting country, has only recovered to the tune of 48%. As for Germany and China, we are at only 12% and 13% respectively.”
Domestic tourism contributes on a large scale to the economic and social development of the country. It is therefore necessary for players in the sector to increase their efforts and pull out all the stops with the aim of improving the national tourism offering.
“For this summer of 2022, I think the most important phenomenon is the new units which were put into service this summer in Taghazout and Agadir. They have come to strengthen the tourist offer. Indeed, we note a concentration of openings at the Taghazout station and I think that this year the city of Agadir will experience very significant progress. It is possible that it displays scores close to pre-pandemic 2019. This is perhaps a difference compared to other cities, but overall, they have all experienced progression and new developments,” explains Zouhir Bouhout.
For his part, Mohamed Farissi, director of a travel agency in Casablanca, maintains that“domestic tourists have been able to take advantage of the promotional advantages made available to them by travel agencies, particularly with regard to hotel offers with complete packages”.
And continues:“Travel packs at competitive prices have been launched to encourage national tourism in seaside resorts, such as Saïdia, Tangier, Agadir, Al Hoceima, and of course Marrakech which is always popular with tourists. The packages contain fun activities for children, or even musical and relaxing activities for families.
Indeed, most promotional packs concern internal tourism. There were also outings abroad, with organized trips. And the most popular country is Turkey, because many of our citizens have not renewed their Schengen visas. As a result, they opted for countries without visas or which enjoy a certain flexibility.
According to the Minister of Tourism, the latest surveys carried out show that 51% of Moroccan tourists prefer seaside tourism, 58% opt for travel during school holidays and 60% for family travel, while 72% are more interested in the price of tourist services.
Regarding the choices favored by Moroccan and foreign tourists during this summer period, Zouhir Bouhout believes that“preferences lean towards coastal towns and seaside resorts, given the latest heat waves and high temperatures. The stations which are full are Tangier, Tetouan, Agadir, El Jadida, and Essaouira.
To this, we can also add the city of Marrakech given the importance of the offer. The ocher city has approximately 74,000 beds in Morocco, which is almost a third of the capacity offered for the tourism sector. It also displays very high occupancy rates and reservations. It has become essential especially as it offers attractive possibilities such as “all inclusive”, entertainment offers (Jamaa El fna) as well as the programming of excursions that can be made to Al Haouz and Ourika. There will also be a very significant recovery in Agadir following the opening of hotels and accommodation units which are of very high quality and are popular with tourists during the summer period.
Note that several measures have been adopted to ensure good tourism dynamics, the latest of which is the official launch, on July 10, by the Moroccan government of the electronic visa aimed at strengthening the attractiveness of the destination “Morocco” in addition to making it possible to exploit an enormous tourist potential among targeted categories.
There was also the launch of campaigns by“the Moroccan National Tourism Office with the involvement of the National Tourism Confederation. Filling hotel rooms with foreign tourists also involves filling airplane seats and the efforts made to achieve this. The CNT recommends an offensive plan to double efforts in terms of air and maritime connectivity as well as a consolidation of relations with tour operators for an equitable recovery of the territories”, underlines Mounir Aberkane.
And added:“Not all regions have benefited from the recovery in the same way. In this sense, the CNT recommends funding at the regional level to strengthen the competitiveness of actors and promote the emergence of new ecosystems. Then, it should be noted that the fundamentals of the entire tourism sector remain fragile after two years of crisis. At the same time, the potential remains underexploited. In this sense, we recommend, to stimulate internal demand, to encourage travel by the rapid implementation of tax-free travel vouchers, and a regionalization of the school holiday calendar. Finally, we must not forget the exogenous risks linked to global geopolitics and drought.
To enable the acceleration of this recovery, Zouhir Bouhout recommends focusing on the development of three major axes which he describes as the winning trio. These include air travel, investment and training.
“We need a real strengthening of air transport and then for internal tourism, it is essential to review the strategy of resorts intended for Moroccans according to their purchasing power. It is also imperative to strengthen investments for the medium term because we are still far from the efforts made by our competitors in this direction. We should also insist on training because there has been the retraining of staff towards other sectors because of the crisis caused by the pandemic”, he concludes.
source: laquotidienne.ma
