On Tuesday, March 21, the newspaper “la vie eco” organized a debate on the theme ‘Tourism: What are the new challenges and vision for Morocco?’ in the presence of Fatim-Zahra Ammor, Minister of Tourism, Adel El Fakir, General Director of ONMT, Imad Berrakad, Director of SMIT, and Hamid Bentahar, President of CNT.
Following the signing of the framework convention for the deployment of new strategic roadmap of tourism sector for the time period 2023-2026, these tourism industry professionals provided their insights on the main tourism issues in the Kingdom, as well as the current national strategic vision and its deployment plan supported by a budget of 6 billion dirhams.
After attracting nearly 11 million visitors in 2022, with a recovery rate of 84% of pre-Covid traffic, industry professionals and authorities aim to give new impulse to the tourism industry with the goal of attracting 17.5 million tourists by 2026 and 26 million by 2030.
Thanks to the achievement of the national soccer team during the World Cup, Morocco is currently in a momentum that it is important to seize. Despite the lack of data on this subject, the destination’s reputation has grown exponentially according to the various feedback from tourism professionals. In addition, “Land of Light” campaign initiated by the ONMT has placed the brand “Morocco” in the collective imagination as a destination that makes you dream by the intensity, diversity and richness of experiences it has to offer: nature, adventure, culture, seaside, etc. …
Thus, the structure of the new roadmap is based on the development of two international and internal sectors focusing on diverse and varied experiences around many themes (nature, adventure, water sports, seaside, cultural tours, city break, business) and five cross-cutting sectors of heritage enhancement and preservation declined on each of these experiences. Each sector will be provided with an impetus laboratory whose objective is to accompany its development, particularly in terms of investment and support for the professions, in order to create solid and sustainable ecosystems.
In addition, participants have not failed to highlight the major challenges that the Kingdom is still facing. If Morocco as a destination is now present in the minds of tourists seeking authentic experiences, its potential remains strongly impacted by the weakness of air connectivity and the lack of offers and diversity in terms of products, which may disadvantage the positioning of Morocco compared to its competitors.