While it occupied 71st position internationally in 2021, Morocco fell to 82nd place in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 ranking of countries according to the travel and tourism development index. If security is the Kingdom’s major asset, many other indicators leave something to be desired. This article is a press review taken from the daily newspaper L’Economiste.
announcement was a cold shower for a tourism sector with an ambitious development strategy and on which many hopes are based. This is how, while it occupied 71st position internationally in 2021, Morocco fell to 82nd place in the 2024 ranking of the World Economic Forum, dedicated to the development of travel and tourism. This ranking is all the more unfavorable as only 119 countries are covered by this international analysis. “Even the 2021 ranking is a loss. This is a drop of 4 ranks compared to the 2019 ranking,” underlines the daily L’Economiste in a breakdown published in its edition of Monday May 27. According to the index, which measures the factors and policies enabling tourism development, the Kingdom has a low score of 3.64. “This is due to its poor rating in terms of resources (natural, cultural resources, etc.), infrastructure and services,” we read. Nevertheless, the sector received a good rating on security, business climate and travel facilitation measures, public investments in the promotion and development of the tourism industry, as well as price competitiveness. “In Africa, Morocco is positioned in the second half of the top 10 best performing countries. It occupies 7th place, behind Kenya and Tanzania. First place on the podium goes to South Africa. In North Africa, the Kingdom comes in 2nd position after Egypt. It is followed by Tunisia and Algeria,” notes L’Economiste. The top 10 highest ranked countries are the United States, Spain, Japan, France, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Italy and Switzerland. This is thanks to a favorable business environment, open travel policies and well-developed transport infrastructure. Among their assets, also, natural and cultural sites. Created in collaboration with the University of Surrey (United Kingdom), the travel and tourism development index is based on around a hundred indicators, including the business climate, security, health services, hygiene, travel facilitation measures, public investments in the promotion and development of the tourism industry, price competitiveness, infrastructure (ports, airports, hotels, roads, etc.), as well as natural and cultural resources. “The presence of tourism training institutes and the deployment of renewable energy in the tourism and travel industry is also taken into consideration. Environmental protection at tourist sites also represents an element of evaluation,” underlines L’Economiste.
