After a long wait, summer 2022 will finally have been the real starting point for the resumption of tourism in Morocco. Revenues and the number of arrivals during the first 7 months, and more particularly June and July, show a relative return to the pre-covid level.
Terraces packed to the brim, beaches where the sand covered by parasols is barely visible, and above all hotels and apartments for vacation rentals that are overbooked, despite the skyrocketing prices. Moroccan tourism did not miss the meeting for its almost first post-covid summer season, after two very difficult years for the sector at all levels. This is evidenced by the latest official figures: more than 3.2 million tourists visited the Kingdom during the months of June and July 2022, including 2 million in July, or 65%. This influx resulted in the recording of 3.8 million overnight stays over the same period.
Moroccan tourism has succeeded in recovering all of the arrivals recorded over the same period in 2019, that is to say before the pandemic. For the State and professionals, recovery is no longer a fragile hope, but rather a palpable reality on the ground, while the destination Morocco is gradually regaining its attractiveness, despite a slight increase in plane ticket prices.
As for the first half of 2022, the number of arrivals stood at 3.4 million tourists, four times more than in 2021, and 61% of the number of tourists who visited Morocco over the same period in 2019. Added to this are the 2 million tourists attracted in July, to reach a total of 5.4 million over the first seven months of the year. As for foreign currency revenues, the supervisory department claims to have reached the threshold of 27.3 billion dirhams during the first half of 2022, or 81% of revenues recorded over the same period in 2019, before the health crisis. A performance that is all the more encouraging given that the Kingdom’s borders remained closed for the first five weeks of the current year.
An exceptional month
The month of June alone represents 25% of revenues for the first half of the year, which suggests an even greater increase, once the figures for July, the best month of this year in terms of arrivals so far, are counted. A dynamic which is felt in the Kingdom’s airports, which totaled, at the end of July 2022, a volume of commercial traffic of 9,813,316 passengers through 89,648 airport movements according to the National Airports Office (ONDA), i.e. recovery rates of 70% and 75% respectively compared to the year 2019. The exceptional month of July also saw the recovery of almost all (98%) air traffic compared to the same period in 2019.
It should be noted, however, the important place of Moroccans living abroad (MRE), who represent almost two thirds of the 3.2 million tourists attracted during the first six months of 2022. An observation which should push the supervisory ministry to double its efforts with foreign markets, in particular the traditional clients of the Kingdom (France, Spain, Germany), while the “Vision 2030”, which expects 26 million tourists, double the figure achieved in 2019, seems increasingly difficult to achieve.
source: maroc-hebdo.press.ma
