A total of 3.8 million tourists visited Morocco between January and May 2017, an increase of 9% compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Tourism Observatory.
The number of foreign tourists increased by 12.3%, while arrivals of Moroccans living abroad (MRE) increased by 3.4%, indicates the Tourism Observatory which has just published its statistics on Moroccan tourism covering the first five months of the year.
A 760% increase in the number of Chinese tourists
This increase concerned the main source markets, in particular Germany (+9%), Spain (+8%) and Belgium (+7%), notes the Observatory.
As for Morocco’s emerging tourism markets, they maintain their upward trend, with China recording an increase of 760%, while Japan, South Korea, the United States and Brazil posted respective increases of 45%, 42%, 34% and 35%, according to the same source.
Marrakech and Agadir still in the lead
Concerning total nights spent in classified tourist accommodation establishments, they recorded an increase of 17% during the first five months of 2017 (+22% for non-resident tourists and +6% for residents).
The two tourist centers Marrakech and Agadir alone generated 60% of total overnight stays at the end of May, reports the Observatory, which notes that these two cities experienced an increase of 19% and 16%, respectively.
Other destinations also showed good performances, in particular the cities of Fez and Tangier with respective increases of 38% and 31%.
As for the occupancy rate until the end of May 2017, it reached 42%, up 4 points compared to the same period last year.
A very slight increase in revenue
Moreover, revenues generated by the tourist activity of non-residents in Morocco amounted to 22.86 billion dirhams at the end of May, compared to 22.7 billion dirhams a year earlier, an increase of 0.7%.
During the month of May, the number of tourist arrivals at border crossings recorded an increase of 4% compared to the same month of 2016 (7.4% for foreign tourists and -1.1 for MRE), adds the Observatory.
source: huffpostmaghreb
