Automotive, agri-food, FDI, MRE transfers, foreign trade…the main sectors of the economy are gradually regaining color, with the exception of tourism. If the supervisory authority recently showed its commitment to an effective recovery, tourist operators, for their part, want more concrete.
The sector, still in agony, is still struggling to take off again despite the efforts of professionals, in terms of launching campaigns and marketing, and despite state support for employers. While tourist arrivals are still declining, travel receipts are in the red with a turnover of 24,738 MDH at the end of September 2021 compared to 26,347 MDH a year earlier, down by 1,609 MDH (-6.1%). It is in this difficult and uncertain context that Fatim-Zahra Ammor, the new Minister of Tourism, Crafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy, met with operators in Marrakech last Tuesday.
The meeting, which was highly anticipated, took place in the presence of the extended executive office of the National Confederation of Tourism (CNT), including the presidents of the trade federations and representatives of the regional tourism councils, the director general of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT), Adel El Fakir, and the president of the board of the Moroccan Society of Tourism Engineering (SMIT), Imad Barrakad. Although little information has filtered through, at the end of this contact between the supervisory authority and the players in the sector, a press release from the ministry was vaguely content with Fatima-Zahra Ammor’s commitment to establishing a road map “taking into account the grievances of private operators in the sector, to relaunch activity and mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“The entire Government of Her Majesty is mobilized to limit the economic impact of the pandemic on the ecosystem and support the sector for a recovery in the best conditions,” added the same source. Which hardly seems to satisfy the expectations of professionals who hoped for more, especially since the sector is experiencing dark days, since the appearance of the first cases of covid-19 in Morocco. If Hamid Bentahar, president of the CNT, welcomed the minister’s commitment on Thursday, he wants more concrete action from the supervisory authority.
“These commitments are very important in the long term,” he said, while expressing the wish to see them implemented. He also listed the priorities of tourism operators, including social measures to protect jobs and the ecosystem of tourism businesses, which have been suffering for 20 months. Bentahar also advocates the lifting of restrictions preventing travel and the organization of events. “Restrictive and destructive” measures which Morocco, champion of vaccination in Africa, could do without.
Since the start of the vaccination campaign in Morocco, nearly 25 million people have been vaccinated with the first dose while the number of those having benefited from the second injection has already exceeded 22 million. Regarding people who have already received the third dose of the booster, to date they are close to 2 million vaccinated. Suffice to say that the Kingdom is today close to collective immunity, very far ahead of its neighbors, who, curiously, are more open than the Kingdom.
If Tunisia has decided to postpone the 18th Francophonie Summit with its 4,000 to 5,000 participants, it has nevertheless offered itself a Recovery Plan targeting, in particular, long-stays and seniors, a traditional clientele of the mid and low season, local media report, explaining that the country wants to reaffirm its presence on the French market by continuing the digital communication initiated during the health crisis.
By opting for low-cost mass tourism, Tunisia has seen its tourism sector recover. A timid recovery certainly, and facilitated by the reopening of borders, which was particularly beneficial for seaside towns. In 2021, the tourist season, according to statistics from the Tunisian Tourism Office, saw an 11% increase in the number of overnight stays. A figure higher than that of 2020 which recorded a decline of 80%. When we know that in Tunisia, out of a total population of nearly 12 million, only 4,552,944 people have been doubly vaccinated against the coronavirus, since the start of the vaccination campaign which started on March 13, we really wonder why Morocco is still opting for certain restrictive measures which hinder a massive arrival of tourists in the country.
source: leseco.ma
