A new page is turning for tourism activity, after two extremely difficult years of Covid-19 for the sector. While a roadmap is being prepared, operators are expressing their optimism, however insisting on the need to put in place a certain number of prerequisites.
The painful pages of the Covid-19 pandemic and the repercussions that followed, over two years, seem about to be definitively turned. A new wind of hope is now blowing over the sector, after the very notable passage of the summer season and its three million visitors in just a month and a half of vacation. The horizons, once very dark, have brightened and confidence is returning again.
Moreover, a strategic roadmap for the sector, which is part of the vision of doubling the number of tourists by 2030 to reach 26 million tourists, is currently being prepared. The authority made the announcement this week during a meeting with the National Tourism Confederation (CNT) and its main member associations and federations, in the presence of Adil Fakir, director general of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT), and Imad Barrakad, general director of the Moroccan Society of Tourism Engineering (SMIT).
Welcoming the achievements of the summer season, considered a true barometer of the sustained recovery of the sector marked by a virtual return to 2019 levels, Fatim-Zahra Ammor, Minister of Tourism, crafts and the social and solidarity economy, today insists on the importance of strengthening this dynamic in order to accelerate the pace of recovery of pre-crisis performances.
If and only if…
The minister’s plan of attack, already put in place to increase air capacity to the Kingdom in the short term, promote the destination among tour operators and strengthen its notoriety among international tourists, seems to appeal to stakeholders. The president of the CNT, Hamid Bentahar, fully believes in it. He nevertheless insists on the imperative of fulfilling certain prerequisites.
The tourism sector deserves to be given many more resources to enable the authority to achieve its objectives, he recommends. “It is a question, in particular, of providing the National Tourism Office with an additional budget and of supporting Royal Air Maroc more closely.” Hamid Bentahar pleads for us to seek out tourists where they are and particularly in markets where the Morocco destination still remains weak and insufficiently aggressive. These include, in particular, the Asian markets and those of North and South America. For Hamid Bentahar, during the summer season, the sector sufficiently demonstrated that it could be an important lever for the socio-economic development of the country.
Indeed, in this context marked by a strong recovery, but also by the numerous challenges posed by the international situation, the tourism sector contributes 7% to the national GDP and creates 550,000 direct jobs. And this potential still remains underexploited given the many assets that Morocco has and the interest and dynamism shown by visitors for the Moroccan destination.
Inviting all partners in the tourism sector, public and private, to redouble their efforts so that this recovery equitably benefits all regions of the Kingdom, Bentahar notes that “the time has come to fully realize the enormous potential of tourism in the Kingdom, to stimulate inclusive and sustainable growth. durable. Every dirham invested in the tourism sector will have a certain impact somewhere.”
And to add that if the large necessary investments have already been made in Morocco, to make the Kingdom an attractive tourist destination, the fact remains that the hotel and airline capacities are not enough. It should be noted that the new sector strategy will be based on three main axes. This involves strengthening air transport through the increase in capacity and the multiplication of point-to-point flights, the alignment of the tourist offer with national and international demand, and the stimulation of public/private investment around priority levers including entertainment and ecotourism.
Following this first meeting with the main stakeholders, the authority announces that the coming weeks will see the organization of several thematic workshops with the participation of representatives of private operators in order to refine the objectives and implementation programs for each tourism sector, and to target the levers and projects priorities to deploy.
source: lesiteinfo.com
