After two years of Covid-19, the tourism sector is regaining its luster in Marrakech where national and foreign tourists are once again investing in different spaces and alleys of this thousand-year-old city, bringing smiles to the faces of professionals.
In Morocco, the revival of the tourism sector has begun and has been confirmed since last February, just after the reopening of the Kingdom’s airspace and the easing of entry measures into the national territory. A trend further amplified with the launch of Operation “Marhaba 2022”, allowing the return of Moroccans Residing Abroad (MRE).
Despite an uncertain global context (persistence of the pandemic crisis and the situation in Ukraine), the craze for hotel units and tourist residences in Marrakech recorded, during the month of last May, an average occupancy rate of 62%, a level almost similar to that of May 2019, according to official data from the Regional Association of the Hotel Industry of Marrakech-Safi (ARIH-MS). A recovery which was consolidated last June, with an occupancy rate of 60%, which is more or less identical to the year 2019. It is a “relaunch and a recovery which are gradually confirmed”.
One of the key factors behind this resumption of tourist activity remains the reopening of borders. The other factor justifying this revival of the tourism sector is attributable to the “long-awaited” decision of the government to ease entry conditions into the national territory, in particular the removal of the PCR test. “After this very important announcement, we noticed a sustained influx towards our destination, which allowed us to recover the market shares that we had lost during the border closures,” underlined Mustapha Amalik, president of ARIH-MS.
Without forgetting the resumption of operation “Marhba” since last June and the return of Moroccans around the world to the motherland. “The 2022 edition of Operation Marhba will contribute to the performance of the summer season coinciding with the Aid Al Adha festival,” he said in a tone of optimism. This is an improvement that delights professionals in the sector, who are jubilant at the return of tourists to the leading destination for national tourism, especially with the promotion of new tourist-producing markets, in this case: China, the United States and Israel.
Regarding the domestic market, he recalled that it represents practically 30% of tourist activity, welcoming its considerable contribution to efforts aimed at relaunching the tourism sector. The recovery is then confirmed and the major communication campaign carried out vigorously by the ONMT internationally should accelerate the pace.
