Tourism in Morocco

Tourism in Morocco

Tourism in Morocco is well developed, maintaining a strong tourist industry focused on the country's coast, culture, and history. The Moroccan government created a Ministry of Tourism in 1985. Tourism is considered one of the main foreign exchange sources in Morocco and since 2013 it had the highest number of arrivals out of the countries in Africa. In 2018, 12.3 million tourists were reported to have visited Morocco.

History of Tourism in Morocco

In the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, between 1 and 1.5 million Europeans visited Morocco. Most of these visitors were French or Spanish, with about 100,000 each from Britain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Tourists mostly visited large beach resorts along the Atlantic coast, particularly Agadir. About 20,000 people from Saudi Arabia visited, some of whom bought holiday homes. Receipts from tourism fell by 16.5% in 1990, the year the Gulf War began. In 1994, Algeria closed its border with Morocco after the Marrakech attack, which caused the number of Algerian visitors to fall considerably, there were 70,000 visitors in 1994 and 13,000 in 1995, compared to 1.66 million in 1992 and 1.28 million in 1993. In 2017, there were 10.3 million tourist arrivals, compared with about 10.1 million in 2016, a 1.5% year-over-year increase. 30% of the tourists were one of the 3.8 million Moroccans living abroad. Marrakech itself had over 2 million visitors in 2017. In 2019, more than 13 million tourists visited Morocco. In 2020, Morocco witnessed an all-time low with no more than 4 million tourists, due to the spread of the COVID-19. In 2023, Marrakech was voted a Top 10 Best Destinations for International Tourists by Tripadvisor. In 2023, Morocco set a new record for the number of tourists visiting, reaching 13.2 million, breaking the former record of 12.9 million that was set in 2019.

Tourism industry

Tourist receipts in 2007 totaled US$7.55 billion. Tourism is the second largest foreign exchange earner in Morocco, after the phosphate industry. The Moroccan government is heavily investing in tourism development. A new tourism strategy called Vision 2010 was developed after the accession of King Mohammed VI in 1999. The government targeted that Morocco will have 10 million visitors by 2010, with the hope that tourism will then have risen to 20% of GDP. Government-sponsored marketing campaigns to attract tourists advertised Morocco as a cheap, exotic, and safe place for European tourists.

Morocco's relatively high number of tourists has been aided by its location, tourist attractions, and relatively low price. Cruise ships visit the ports of Casablanca and Tangier. Morocco is close to Europe and attracts visitors to its beaches. Because of its proximity to Spain, tourists in southern Spain's coastal areas take one- to three-day trips to Morocco. Marrakesh and Agadir are the top two destinations in the country. Air services between Morocco and Algeria have been established, many Algerians have gone to Morocco to shop and visit family and friends. Morocco is relatively inexpensive because of the interesting dirham exchange rate compared to major currencies and the increase of hotel prices in neighborhood Spain. Morocco has an excellent road and rail infrastructure that links the major cities and tourist destinations with ports and cities with international airports. Low-cost airlines offer cheap flights to the country.

Plan Azur

The "Plan Azur", is a large-scale project initiated by King Mohammed VI, is meant to provide for creating six coastal resorts for holiday-home owners and tourists (five on the Atlantic coast and one on the Mediterranean), the Daily Telegraph noted. The plan also includes other large-scale development projects such as upgrading regional airports to attract budget airlines, and building new train and road links. Through these efforts the country achieved an 11% percent rise in tourism in the first five months of 2008 compared with the same period the previous year, it said, adding that French visitors topped the list with 927,000 followed by Spaniards (587,000) and Britons (141,000). Morocco, which is close to Europe, has a mix of culture and the exotic that makes it popular with Europeans buying holiday homes.

Safety in Morocco

Caution is advised due to terrorism. Recent examples are April 2011 terrorist attacks in Marrakesh, the Murders of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland in Imlil December 2018. Morocco is a relatively safe country.