Marrakech maintains its positioning as an international destination. The ocher city continues to rise in international rankings. At the start of 2017, the New York Times ranked Marrakech as the 52nd city to visit during the year. Likewise, the French daily Le Monde places the ocher city as a flagship destination of the 20 “globally” selected for 2017.
Despite the economic situation in the sector, Marrakech promises to end the 2016 financial year on a positive note. Of course, the 2016 trend has not yet been consolidated, but provisional figures are around 1 million 900 tourists who visited Marrakech during the year. Overnight stays and arrivals would increase by 5% each. The occupancy rate would be 48% at a time when the operators’ objective set for 2016 was 65%. What explains this slowdown? “Certainly, we have not achieved the objectives set but there is no decline to deplore. After all, Marrakech has not benefited from the decline of certain competing destinations. The ocher city has been the victim of amalgamation, especially since certain foreign media have not done us any favors by denigrating the image and attractiveness of the city. And yet, we were generally successful in our exercise,” explains a source close to the Marrakech Regional Tourism Council.
Several events have marked tourism in Marrakech, particularly towards the end of the year. Let us cite in this sense the organization of COP22 last November. A period during which all establishments were full. Overbooking was also observed towards the end of the year. If Marrakech generally reaches 200,000 tourists in December, the destination would have welcomed nearly 300,000 tourists in December 2016. And for good reason: the end-of-year festivities coincided with a weekend. Likewise, domestic tourists boosted the pace in 2016, representing a share of 27%. Marrakech has also seen the strong return of certain source markets. Let us cite the Chinese market in this sense. Operators have observed a flow of 1,000 Chinese tourists per month since June 1, the effective date of the abolition of visas for Chinese nationals.
Other markets saw their arrivals increase during the year, in this case the Russian, German and British markets. Among the key moments, we also cite the opening of the new terminal at Marrakech Menara airport. This infrastructure will strengthen the contribution of air travel to Marrakech tourism. This is confirmed by the return in 2017 of Air France to the ocher city. The airline will serve Marrakech three times a week from the Charles de Gaulle hub. Furthermore, tourist operators in Marrakech do not yet have visibility for the year 2017. The action plan of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT) will be slightly delayed. Operators are awaiting the government’s decision to release the budgets devoted to tourism promotion. However, individual actions will be taken in the meantime. Some operators will take part in the Madrid Motor Show starting next week to explore new horizons.
Source: http://jourhui.ma/economie/marrakech-reussit-le-pari-touristique
