After having suffered greatly from the closure of borders, Moroccan tourism will finally be able to restart. Since February 7, a set of measures have been taken to accompany the decision to open the borders to flights to or from the kingdom. These relate to the obligation to present a vaccination pass and the negative result of a PCR test less than 48 hours before boarding a plane for all travelers wishing to access the national territory as well as the carrying out of rapid tests for passengers upon their arrival at the airports of Morocco. These measures also include carrying out PCR tests for groups of travelers randomly upon their arrival. They will be informed of the results later. In this regard, all the equipment and human, health, security and administrative resources necessary for the success of these operations will be put in place.
It also involves the possibility of carrying out an additional test at the hotel or residence center for tourists, 48 hours after their entry into the national territory. Regarding positive cases, the government requires the obligation for normal positive cases to observe health confinement in their places of residence, while subjecting them to careful monitoring and the transfer of difficult and critical positive cases to hospitals to receive the necessary care. Director General of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT), Adel El Fakir spoke about the state of mind and the situation that prevails in this key sector of the Moroccan economy.
Adel El Fakir:There are already flights from companies like Air France, Royal Air Maroc, Transavia and Air Arabia. At the same time, new connections are being put in place to restart or even strengthen all flows to Morocco. Thus Royal Air Maroc is resuming all of its programming on its markets and in particular the French market.
The same is true of Transavia, with which we have excellent cooperative and partnership relations. We have just finalized our program for the summer. We are at +40% capacity compared to 2019, the year before Covid. This expresses the potential that the Morocco destination will offer for the French market and for travelers from around the world.
Have you undertaken any specific initiatives to better awaken the Morocco destination?
When we talk to our partners and customers, the desire for Morocco has never been as strong as at the moment. We feel it in the reservations. Some companies saw their reservations soar in the three days following the announcement of the opening. There is a plan to accompany this opening and this is materialized by our presence at Paris these days for the promotion of Morocco by our partners with whom we exchange all the practical information they may need to act. Next step: ensure that, for the February holidays and beyond, Morocco is once again a privileged destination and at the heart of the choice of French travelers.
How do you plan to boost domestic tourism alongside tourism of foreign origin?
We must first pay tribute to the tourism professionals who have shown enormous resilience and strength, tribute also to the Moroccan state which has been at their side throughout the pandemic so that this cutting-edge industry, in which Morocco is the first destination ofAfrica with 13 million visitors in 2019, remains active and ready for relaunch.
As for domestic tourism, you should know that it has been the main clientele of hotels in Morocco for three years. It is the first segment ahead of the French market. This clientele has strengthened during the pandemic. Moroccans have, for some, rediscovered Moroccan destinations, and for others, discovered new destinations. This allowed the ecosystem to stay afloat and never close because the activity was there, certainly not at the same level but supported by the State. The Moroccan has learned to travel more and to travel differently in his own country.
What do you plan to help professionals get back on track?
There is a whole program that was designed by the State and deployed by the government to help them. What seems important to us is that they find their customers. To do this, we are currently working in different markets so that travelers can find the air capacities and the right offers to resume a thread that was temporarily interrupted by the pandemic. As I speak to you, tourism professionals are preparing their teams, strengthening the health conditions of their establishments in order to receive customers in the best conditions, knowing that Morocco offers, in addition to its tourist assets, very strong health security. Monitoring of the pandemic has been extremely rigorous and detailed from the start and vaccination campaigns are still underway.
What are the lessons learned from this complicated period to prevent the problems from starting again?
None of the tourism players had any particular recipes to counter this crisis. So we have learned to strengthen our resilience and flexibility. There is a time that has passed. Previously, reservations were made a month in advance. Today, customers want flexibility, a much more authentic and stronger experience. This is why the Moroccans will play a very important role. The customer will thus be able to decide at their own pace. Before, everyone wanted guarantees and visibility. Today, we operate with constraints that are exogenous to us but which we continue to learn to manage.
What are the goals for the end of the year?
It would be premature to talk about quantified objectives because the situation is evolving. What matters today is to rebuild, first the air flow to Morocco, then to put Morocco back at the heart of the activities of our distributors and our customers to achieve a fairly strong recovery curve. With this crisis, projections are less easy to make. So we are waiting to see the results and will work on them later.
What are your plans for sub-Saharan African customers?
We have a strong and specific strategy for sub-Saharan Africa. A dedicated team is based in Dakar and a number of countries are among our priorities. Special groups have been set up in Marrakech and Fez, Dakar and other African capitals. This is a priority market for us. It offers us great potential for development by our friends in sub-Saharan Africa.
If there is one sentence that you would like us to remember about Morocco in 2022, it would be…
Morocco has never been so ready to receive visitors. Morocco and Moroccans are waiting for you.
