According to the delegation of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT) responsible for the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, around 98,000 tourists from the Scandinavian region visited the Kingdom over the last year, said the regional director of ONMT, Aziz Mnii, in an interview with MAP.
From Denmark, the number of tourists increased by 27%, while Sweden and Norway showed an increase of 6%, said Mr. Mnii, recalling that nearly 87,000 Scandinavians stayed in Morocco in 2015.
This trend, he estimated, should continue during the current year to reach more than 100,000 tourists, while only 50,000 visited the Kingdom in 2009. According to Mnii, this good performance is the result of actions carried out by the Office over the last five years aimed at attracting a greater number of travel agencies and expanding travel programming to the country.
Thanks to a program adopted five years ago according to a well-defined strategy, Morocco has now become a preferred and regular destination with several tour operators in the region, he said. Emphasis was also placed, he continued, on the promotion of new niches, such as mountain and sports tourism, citing golf and water sports in this regard.
In the same context, the head of the ONMT indicated that 35 Scandinavian tour operators (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) specializing in golf have shown an interest in the Morocco destination, i.e. double compared to 2015. More than 120 travel agencies in Northern Europe offered their customers trips to the Kingdom, he added. On the other hand, Mnii noted that Morocco was thus able to maintain its positioning in the Nordic market, despite the difficult situation that the sector is going through in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The kingdom, he assured, remains a favored destination for Nordic tourists, at a time when several countries in the MENA region have experienced a decline estimated at 60%.
Last year was marked by the organization of trips for the benefit of 160 Scandinavian journalists and bloggers, noted Mnii. In addition, the regional director of the ONMT indicated that 18 famous Swedish and Danish surfers went to Morocco last December as part of a trip between Essaouira and Agadir aimed at attracting more enthusiasts of this sport from Northern Europe. Finnish and Norwegian surfers will benefit from similar trips to the Kingdom this year, he added.
The Office’s strategy in Scandinavia is also expressed through participation in tourism and travel fairs in Finland, Sweden and Norway with a view to promoting the Morocco destination and highlighting its assets in this area.
Morocco notably took part in the Oslo International Tourism Fair (Reiseliv 2017), held from January 13 to 15 in the Norwegian capital. This flagship three-day event saw the participation of representatives from dozens of countries from around the world in the hope of promoting the exchange of experiences in sectors related to tourism and travel.
