Since the start of the crisis in March 2020, tourism revenue has continued to collapse. According to an expert requesting anonymity, the decline of 42.8% during the first seven months of 2021, compared to the same period of 2020, will lead to a drop of 30 to 40% in total travel revenue at the end of the year. These will peak between 21 and 25 billion dirhams compared to 36.4 billion dirhams last year and nearly 80 billion dirhams in 2019.
The figures for travel receipts in foreign currency collected between January and the end of July 2021, published by the Foreign Exchange Office, highlighted the continued deterioration of this item which rose to 13.046 billion DH at the end of July (billion dirhams) compared to 22.807 billion dirhams for the same period a year earlier.
A 46% drop in revenue offset by a 45.6% explosion in MRE transfers
Asked to explain the continuation of this 46% decline despite a summer that looked promising with the arrival of several million MREs, an informed observer of the tourism sector tells us that we will have to wait for the official figures for the month of August to know if they were numerous and spendthrift. For the moment, everything suggests that there have not been very many of them coming to Morocco since the reopening of the borders which took place on June 15, because they haveincreased the number of family mandates.
An impression confirmed by the fact that fund transfers made by Moroccans living abroad have exploded and stood at54 billion DHat the end of July 2021 compared to 37 billion DH at the end of July 2020.
While there is reason to be concerned about the continued decline in tourism revenue, we must still welcome the significant increase in transfers from MREs which jumped by 45.6%. Indeed, the increase of 16.9 billion DH in transfers from MRE largely offsets the drop of 9.761 billion DH in travel receipts over the last 7 months.
“An improvement in travel revenue in August won’t change much”
That said, the publication of revenue figures for the first seven months of the year shows that there will not be much improvement by the end of the current year and that the fall in revenues will worsen.
We must wait to know the figures for travel receipts for the month of August to know whether many MREs will have visited their native country.
21 to 25 billion dirhams in revenue expected for 2021
In the absence of foreign tourists who constitute the majority of travel revenues, and whose return date is still unknown, tourism revenues for the year 2021 should not exceed 21 to 25 billion dirhams, a drop of 30 to 40% compared to 2020. In 2019, tourism revenues were 78.7 billion DH.
“This is explained by the fact that the crisis only really started after the 1st quarter of 2020 which had achieved a good figure of 19.2 billion dirhams compared to 19.61 billion dirhams for the first three months of the year 2019 before the arrival of the crisis,” concludes our interlocutor, for whom the drop of travel expenses abroad by Moroccans (-18% or 1 billion dirhams) will not change much in the surplus balance of receipts which fell at the end of last July by 51.9%, or less 8.662 billion dirhams.
source: medias24.com
