Tourism

Contributing 8.1% to GDP and accounting for 7.1% of employment in 2016, tourism holds an important place in Morocco’s economy, with 2017 garnering strong results. Despite having faced some challenges, the country has a number of favourable factors to build upon, such as its political stability, new infrastructure developments and multiplying air connections. While the sector is still far from achieving its 2020 target of 20m arrivals, the latest figures signal an uptick in activity, demonstrated by growing inflows, an increasing number of overnight stays and new infrastructure. Even with these successes, however, sector leaders have identified weaker areas to focus on, such as relatively low average occupancy rates. In the meantime, Morocco’s niche tourism segments – notably seaside, business, and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions – are seeing marked progress, thanks to proactive source market diversification and targeted travel promotions.