Good news for tourism professionals. Transavia, the low-cost airline of the Air France-KLM group, is strengthening its services to Morocco. The company has just concluded a new contract with the ONMT which provides for a 45% increase in its offer.
Cities already served such as Marrakech and Agadir are affected, but also new destinations that the Office has highlighted, such as Dakhla with the programming of annual direct flights Paris-Dakhla and Paris-Rabat. And it’s not over yet. The company plans to launch several other new products for next winter. The announcement was made at the IFTM/Top Resa show which continues until September 28.
A very nice blow for Adel El Fakir, the brand new CEO of the ONMT and his teams who are continuing the air transport project which remains the heart of the war. Another partnership announced on the sidelines of this show, that which links the Office and the French tour operator FTI Voyages.
The TO will strengthen its presence in Agadir by launching, for the first time, a charter offer from Paris and Basel-Mulhouse with the airline Small Planet in addition to the allotments contracted in Marrakech from Paris, Nantes and Bordeaux. Finally, the group is inaugurating, this winter, its first Club “FTI Privilège”, a 100% French-speaking club concept dedicated to French customers.
Note that Morocco is one of the 3 priority destinations of the FTI group with more than 150 hotel contracts in Morocco available on the tour operator’s consumer and professional platforms from 2019. It is therefore against a backdrop of recovery that the IFTM/Top Resa show in Paris continues. 2018 was an excellent year for tourism around the world and 2019 should confirm this positive trend.
Worldwide, arrivals increased by 7%, or 1.3 million international tourists. The progression in Africa was more pronounced with a 9% increase and the results are particularly due to the rebound recorded by North African countries, particularly Morocco. And among the leading suppliers of tourists in the world, France. This market, which represents a third of national tourist arrivals, has been growing for 18 months.
After a clear decline recorded in 2015 and due to an unfavorable geopolitical context, arrivals of foreign French tourists (excluding binationals) increased by 11%, which can be explained by the economic recovery that France experienced during 2017 and especially by the increase in air travel from all French regions to Morocco over the last two years.
After shocking declines in 2015 and 2016, overnight stays by French tourists took off again in 2017 with more than 11%. Overnight stays for the first 6 months of 2018 confirm the positive trend
And the first 6 months of 2018 have in fact confirmed the resumption of overall arrivals of French people, whether for individuals or even for the package travel market with an almost generalized demand for destinations according to Seto (union of tour-operating companies).
Indeed, after having experienced a decline, package trips to Morocco recorded an increase of more than 10% in 2018. The combined communication actions on targeted media, digital, and the efforts of professionals made it possible to significantly increase flows for 2018 with more than 1.5 million tourists from France to end of June.
“That being said, the French market requires even more work because its potential is unlimited and we could do even better,” said Said Mouhid, president of the Moroccan Tourism Observatory. It is not for nothing that all the regions of Morocco and tourism professionals are in force at the 40th edition of IFTM/Top Resa.
source: leconomiste.com
