World tourism: Morocco is doing well

The national tourism sector stands out with a good performance, whether in terms of arrivals or receipts, at a time when tourism in the world is struggling to regain its pre-crisis levels. Indeed, at the end of March 2023, Morocco welcomed 2.9 million tourists, i.e. a growth of 17% compared to the same period of 2019. Revenues reached the record figure of 25 billion dirhams, up 51% compared to 2019, indicates a press release from the Ministry of Tourism, Handicrafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy. In this sense, the Minister of Tourism Fatim-Zahra Ammor underlines that “our country has taken the right decisions at the right time”. “The sector has been made a national priority and all the actions implemented have made it possible not only to strengthen the resilience of the sector during the crisis but also to accelerate recovery, despite a difficult international economic context”, said Ms. Ammor, cited in the press release. According to the world tourism barometer produced by the World Tourism Organization, world arrivals in the 1st quarter of 2023 are down 20% compared to 2019. Apart from the Middle East, which is up 15%, all regions of the world continue to show double-digit declines, thus testifying to the difficulty of recovering arrivals in an increasingly competitive world arena (-10% for Europe, -46% for Asia, -14% for America, -12% for Africa…).