L’tourist ecosystem is the big loser in this health crisis which has lasted for almost two years now. Tossed between the effects of confinement, travel restrictions and border closures, the sector is mired in a crisis from which it does not seem ready to emerge.
The appearance of the Omicron variant, with the consequent suspension of air links to Morocco, has destroyed the very last hopes of operators to limit the damage by taking advantage of the end-of-year festivities. On the contrary, the new variants add invisibility to an already devastated sector, where operators are pulling the devil by the tail. And the entire ecosystem is affected: hotels, tourist transport, travel agencies… To the point that the special fund for managing the Covid19 pandemic has been requested again, the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) having notably announced the offer of lump sum compensation for the benefit of employees and trainees of several players operating in certain sub-sectors of tourism, and who have been impacted by the crisis (see box).
The support from the fund is certainly important, since it allows the sector to still be able to preserve certain jobs, but it remains insufficient compared to the severe losses suffered by tourist operators. With the consequences of the bankruptcy of several players among travel agencies, car rental companies, but also at the level of tourist transport where legal proceedings have multiplied.
To try to find solutions, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics and the professional associations and unions of tourist transport in Morocco held a meeting on December 14. Objective: to discuss additional facilities, for the benefit of professionals, linked to the payment of loan installments as part of ongoing consultations with the Professional Group of Banks of Morocco (GPBM), as well as the extension of the validity of the operation of vehicle authorizations.
Same desolation on the side of the Federation of car rental companies without drivers in Morocco (FLASCAM). “Our activity is on the verge of asphyxiation. 3,200 companies have already declared bankruptcy, or 30% of the sector. This level must increase further as most companies have lost more than 90% of their equity. Under the effect of court decisions (unpaid cases) or to reduce the fleet in order to control costs, more than 27,000 vehicles were sold”, Tarik Dbilij, the president of the Federation, recently told us.
More generally, despite this hostile environment, tourist indicators were however in a favorable direction, which will nevertheless be slowed down by the restrictions imposed due to the appearance of Omicron. Thus, after an increase of 201.7% for the third quarter of 2021 which coincided with the reopening of national borders, tourist receipts maintained their positive evolution during the month of October 2021, recording an increase of 58.5%, after a decline of 65.2% a year earlier, according to figures from the Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF). Thus, from June to October 2021, tourism revenues amounted to 21.1 billion dirhams, after respectively 8.9 billion and 38.5 billion during the same period of 2020 and 2019.
At the end of the first ten months of 2021, the drop in these revenues was contained at -0.7% to stand at 28.5 billion dirhams, after -6.1% a month earlier. Compared to their level before the crisis, they fell by 57.4% or 38.5 billion dirhams, notes the DEPF. Which specifies that“this improvement is in line with the increase, for the third quarter of 2021, in tourist arrivals of 716.9% to nearly 2 million tourists, of which 30% are foreign tourists, after 242,000 tourists a year earlier”. For their part, overnight stays reached nearly 4 million, including 30% by non-residents, after 1.4 million in Q3-2020, an increase of 183.9%.
“Consequently, after a negative development since the start of the pandemic, tourist arrivals and overnight stays returned to growth at the end of the first nine months of 2021, recording a strengthening, compared to the previous year, respectively of 27.1% to 2.8 million and 12% to 6.6 million,” concludes the same source.
Untenable situation
The State continues to play firefighter by keeping the sector on life support. But given the scale of the damage, we will have to adopt a more radical approach to slow down these cascading bankruptcies and save thousands of jobs, while providing greater relief to operators. This is why the National Tourism Confederation (CNT) is asking the government to go further, by considering the pandemic “as a structural factor for rethinking the tourism sector”. The idea is to “establish with the public authorities a citizen principle for the application of support measures, which consists of subjecting the start of reimbursements to the opening of the skies and the lifting of the state of emergency”. This should allow operators to “meet their social, fiscal and financial commitments as soon as health and security conditions allow”.
It is with this in mind that the CNT has made a series of 10 proposals, in line with the provisions provided for in the program contract concluded on August 3, 2020. They revolve, among other things, around the fixed compensation paid by the CNSS, a tax moratorium for 2020 and 2021 for local taxes, in particular the professional tax, the reprofiling of Damane Oxygène credits and long-term bank debt with the GPBM and the acceleration of the establishment of the Tourism Fund (see details on www. laquotidienne.ma).
Will the State subscribe to all these requests? The tourism sector is in any case in a state of absolute emergency, especially since with Omicron, known to be hyper contagious, we must expect the maintenance of certain restrictions which will further hamper activity, even being a brake on the desired dynamism of internal tourism.
Lump sum compensation paid from December 31
As said above, a lump sum compensation will be distributed for the benefit of employees and interns of several players operating in certain tourism subsectors, and impacted by the pandemic. According to the CNSS, these are classified accommodation establishments, travel agencies approved by the government authority in charge of tourism, tourist transport for people authorized by the government authority in charge of transport, and temporary employment companies having contracts with employers in the aforementioned tourism sub-sectors, signed before the end of February 2020.
These actors can request the benefit of the lump sum compensation for the benefit of their employees and interns under contract for integration declared in February 2020, including those who have been in a state of illness, maternity or work accident, provided that the actors cited meet the conditions stipulated in Decree No. 2.21.966.
This measure also applies to tourist guides with a professional card and professional tax, or who are registered in the register of self-employed and insured by the CNSS under law 98.15 establishing medical coverage for the benefit of self-employed workers, including including those who have not previously benefited from the lump sum compensation, provided that their situation is regularized and their work documents are renewed before December 31, 2021.
The flat-rate compensation covers the period from September 1 to the end of December 2021. Actors in the tourism sector wishing to have their workers benefit from this flat-rate compensation, as well as tourist guides, must make their declaration via the covid19.cnss.ma portal for the months of September, October and November 2021, between December 17, 2021 and January 3, 2022. For the month of December 2021, declarations can be made until January 16, 2022. The service of this fixed compensation linked to the three months mentioned above will take place from December 31, 2021 for the benefit of those declared until December 26, 2021 at midnight, and from January 24, 2022 for those declared after this period for the three months mentioned above, as well as for those declared in December 2021.
source: laquotidienne.ma
