Nearly 2.506 million tourists visited Morocco between January and March 2019, an increase of 4.1% compared to the same period a year earlier (+4% for foreign tourists and +5% for Moroccans living abroad), according to the Tourism Observatory.
The main source markets experienced an increase in arrivals during this period, in particular France (+10%), Italy and Holland (+8%), Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom (+3%), and Spain (+1%), specifies the Observatory in its latest note on tourism statistics in Morocco.
For their part, total nights spent in classified tourist accommodation establishments recorded an increase of 4% at the end of March, notes the same source, noting that the two tourist centers Marrakech and Agadir alone generated 59% of total nights.
These two destinations recorded positive results, namely increases of 8% and 4% respectively, continues the Observatory, noting that Tangier also posted a good performance with +9%.
For their part, Fez and Rabat experienced stagnation while Casablanca recorded a negative result of -3%.
For the month of March 2019 alone, the number of tourist arrivals at border crossings saw a decrease of -1.6% compared to March 2018 (-4.3% for foreign tourists and +3.9% for Moroccans residing abroad).
The main source markets recorded mixed results with +9% for Holland, +7% for France, +5% for Italy, -6% for the United Kingdom and -11% for Spain.
At the same time, the volume of nights in classified establishments showed an increase of 8% in March 2019, reports the same source, noting that Marrakech and Agadir recorded increases of 10% and 11% respectively.
In addition, Tangier experienced a significant increase of +13%, followed by Rabat and Casablanca with 5% and 4% respectively, while Fez experienced a slight decline in March of -2%, notes the same source.
source: huffpostmaghreb.com
