By Merieme Addou, AfricaNews reporter in Rabat, Morocco. Photo: Rob Oudshoorn
Despite the global economic crisis, Morocco's tourism industry is doing well. Eight million tourists visited the country in 2008, a 7% growth compared to 2007.
A total of 6.72mn tourists arrived in the country over this period. The most important source market for Morocco was France, which sent 2.6mn tourists. Spain was second, with 1.43mn, followed by Belgium (392,000), the UK (387,000), Italy (333,000) the Netherlands (325,000) and Germany (182,000). Tourism receipts for the Jan-Nov period were MAD54.1bn (US$6.6bn).
Despite The growth of the sector The Ministry of Tourism has also drafted a new plan to protect the Moroccan tourism sector from the effects of the global economic crisis, especially that The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) has forecast that growth in global demand for tourism in 2009 will be 0%, as compared with 2% in 2008, The new plan – called CAP 2009 – is aimed at keeping Morocco attractive to tourists new strategic measures has been adopted to anticipate and limit the impact of the global financial and economic situation on the sector.
Foreign currency
The tourism sector is Morocco's primary foreign currency earner and main employer after labour-intensive agriculture and the textile industry.
It is also the country's main attraction for foreign investment, with high-profile real estate and tourism projects financed by Arab Gulf investors worth some $20 billion.
The government plans to increase the number of tourists visiting Morocco to 10 million in 2010 the cornerstone of Morocco’s tourism strategy for the balance of this decade is Vision 2010. This programme aims to attract 10mn tourists to the African nation by 2010. Other key aspects of the programme include the creation of some 160,000 new hotel beds, bringing the total national capacity to 230,000 beds. The country also hopes to create 600,000 new tourism sector jobs.
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