A few days after the announcement of the reopening of the borders, the government revealed the conditions of access to the national territory, however considered drastic by certain tourist operators.
Strong initiatives will be required to reposition the Morocco destination on international radars.
Ponly a few days before the reopening of national borders. On February 7, air traffic will resume its rights over Moroccan skies, after having been interrupted for a little over two months. Moroccans and residents stranded abroad will finally be able to reunite with their loved ones. But, above all, the national economy, suffocated by this lockdown, will be able to breathe new life with a clear resumption of business. When this news was announced, tourist operators, in particular, logically applauded. They were indeed very upset against the government after the border closure
which further undermined a stricken activity, but which showed signs of recovery. “This is a measure that has been demanded by all Moroccan tourist operators and all foreign partners who do business with Morocco, in particular operators in the French market, which remains the No. 1 market in terms of overnight stays for foreign tourists in Morocco (around 30% of total TES overnight stays)”, underlines Zoubir Bouhout, director of the Provincial Tourism Council (CPT) of Ouarzazate.
However, Tuesday evening, it was a cold snap after the discovery of the health protocol (see box) put in place by the authorities. This was their main concern, convinced that if it is too rigorous, the recovery of the sector will inevitably be aborted. “Access conditions must be flexible and meet international standards to safeguard Morocco’s achievements in the fight against the pandemic and ensure the health security of our visitors”, continues Bouhout. Instead, the government has put in place“drastic conditions which are likely to slow down the desired recovery after two long, very difficult years for tourist operators”, he laments, stressing that “these measures demonstrate that there is still rigidity on the part of our officials, who continue to favor the aspect of health security in an exaggerated manner over the aspect of economic development”. “We are entitled to ask questions about the purpose of this opening weighed down by these restrictive measures. In my opinion, this is nothing more and nothing less than an extension of border closures,” he complains.
A flexible protocol, but not necessarily lax, could at least allow the Kingdom to try to recover market shares lost to other competing destinations due to border closures. According to the Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF), “following the re-closure of borders from November 29 after the appearance and then spread of the Omicron variant, the performance of the tourism sector should weaken significantly, particularly in view of the loss of activity which will coincide with the high season of one of the main tourist centers of the Kingdom, in this case the city of Marrakech”.
Hence the need, today, to be more offensive, especially since, specifies Bouhout,“certain low-cost companies like Ryanair or Easyjet have not yet announced their flight schedule and were awaiting the announcement by the Moroccan authorities of conditions of access to Morocco. Others will not start their flights at the beginning of February, when companies have scheduled a lower number of rotations than the flights scheduled in 2019.
source:laquotidienne.ma
