Friday, February 26, 2016

French Tourist Numbers are Down in Morocco


Tourism in Morocco continues to be affected by association with other Maghreb countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, which have seen terror attacks. French tourists are still reluctant to go to Morocco, as is shown by the latest travel survey of travel for January,  released by the National Union of Travel Agencies (SNAV).


The numbers do not bode well for tourism in Morocco. Reservations of French visitors to the Kingdom suffered a 17% drop in during January according to French tour operators. French tourists favour medium-haul destinations such as Portugal (+ 20%) , Spain (+ 16%) and Italy (+ 7%).

Morocco recorded a 35% decrease in the number of French tourists actually arriving in Morocco compared to January 2015 and that of 2016. Tunisia, which recorded a drop of 50% arrivals. Morocco continues to be victim of the amalgam with the Maghreb countries like Tunisia which saw the attacks. Recently, it was a suicide car bomb targeted a convoy of the presidential guard in the centre of Tunis.

Destinations such as Cape Verde (+ 52%), Portugal (+ 15%) and Spain (+ 4%), are considered safer. On the other hand, French tourists are turning to long haul destinations in North and South America and Asia. Cuba is a winner (+ 59%), China (+ 48%) and India (+ 34%).

Faced with this situation, Morocco has undertaken a set of security measures to protect crowded places and hotels. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Tourism has undertaken a major campaign to "sell" Morocco as a destination in the international fairs of the sector. Lahcen Haddad has been a major force in the efforts in the countries of Eastern Europe but also on traditional tourist source markets.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

good thing in my opinion, the french are really very nasty and very critical without contributing much. I think morocco is better of without France.