Tourism/roadmap: No more time to waste
The tourism roadmap is in the starting blocks. The next few weeks will include the effective launch of this action plan as well as the operationalization of the priority areas in the short and medium terms. The line ministry, the National Confederation of Tourism (CNT), the Moroccan National Tourist Board (ONMT), the Moroccan Tourism Engineering Corporation (SMIT), and the professional federations/associations have just kicked off Act 1 of a crosscutting and multidimensional action plan. The roadmap comes timely within a recovery context.
The goal is to position Morocco in a new development momentum, to modernize the tourism experience, and to professionalize the ecosystems as well as the ecosystem of actors/operators. It must be said that the context lends itself to this all-out mobilization: More than 80% of arrivals of tourists to Morocco as a destination have been recovered (at the end of November), and 112% of foreign currency travel receipts have been collected, compared to the reference year (2019).
The roadmap is the result of several consultation sessions as well as thematic workshops between the supervisory authorities and the professionals. In total, a hundred private operators were associated with the reflection and the development of the final version. Better still, the dynamics surrounding the new offensive for the promotion of the Morocco destination is unprecedented with the advent of a new year, the feats of the Moroccan team during the World Cup in Qatar, international promotion campaigns, the remobilization of professionals, as well as the (economic) indicators in positive territory).
This is a virtuous circle heralding ambitious prospects in terms of arrivals, overnight stays, and revenues. According to our sources, the roadmap expects the arrival of 17 million tourists in 2026. By 2030, the goal is to reach 26 million tourists. In terms of growth, the sector is expected to achieve a rate of 35% between 2019 and 2026. Beyond that, growth should rise to 50% between 2026 and 2030. The main levers of the roadmap revolve around “a new engineering of the tourism offering in order to put more emphasis on the customer experience”. Air transport is a centerpiece of the roadmap. “An offensive plan will be put in place for the development of international and domestic air connectivity”, said the line ministry.
In addition, the armed wing for the promotion of the sector, namely ONMT, is called upon to further strengthen marketing and campaigns with particular importance being given to digital and influence communication. Obviously, the attractiveness and the stimulation of tourist investment are the engines fueling the revival of the competitiveness of the destination. The challenge is to seize the opportunities offered by the new context and meet the capital requirements necessary for the restructuring, transformation, and diversification of the tourism value chain.
A.R.
