Tourism: The recovery is confirmed, but the hiccups persist

he recovery of the tourism sector is confirmed from month to month. At the end of last June, 3.4 million foreign tourists visited Morocco as a destination. This is what the line minister, Fatim-Zahra Ammor, has just announced to the House of Councillors. Thus, the number of arrivals has quadrupled compared to the same period last year (2021). But the reference year remains 2019. The performance of arrivals during the  first half of 2022 represents barely 63% compared to the same period in 2019. In the month of June alone, the number of tourists reached 1.14 million, an increase of 5% compared to the reference year (2019). Even better, arrivals last June represent a 235% increase compared to the same month in 2021! As for the sinews of war, foreign currency earnings, they totaled 20 billion dirhams at the end of the first five months of the current year. That is an increase of 173% compared to the end of May 2021, except that in comparison with the performance of the same period of 2019, the 20 billion dirhams will have made it possible to recover barely 71% of the revenue. This means that there are still sources of progress in terms of receipts, overnight stays, and arrivals. The whole challenge today is to manage to exceed pre-Covid crisis performance. The goal is to multiply the number of tourist arrivals and return, from 2023, to the levels recorded before the Covid crisis. To meet this challenge, operators are calling for capacity building and air connectivity. This requires the mobilization of more aircraft and therefore seats, the multiplication of agreements with tour operators, the intensification of international promotional campaigns in new markets with strong development potential. 
Today, the challenge consists in remobilizing reception capacities in hotel establishments. To meet the new demand, the destination does not have several choices. Upgrading accommodation establishments is now a sine qua non. “Accommodation structures have suffered enormously throughout the crisis. Some (hotels) have closed, others have maintained their activity to a minimum but with serious difficulties… This is the reason why we have put in place the assistance plan…”, confided the minister in charge during a Club de l’Economiste meeting. According to Fatim-Zahra Ammor, the upgrading of accommodation establishments will have to cover several levels: fittings, layout, staff training, and other issues… Precisely, upgrading human resources is the top priority. The two years of the Covid crisis have led to job losses, hotel closures, losses in terms of the quality of HR… “We are going to set up working groups to improve human resources”, said the minister. Another challenge and not the least, the diversification of the offering in terms of animation, leisure, content… If there is a subject that often comes up in reviews of the Morocco destination, it is indeed that of animation. According to Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor (during her visit to the Club de l’Economiste: “We are aware that we are lacking in terms of animation. In fact, we’ve been working on it for a while. This project is one of the priorities of the ministry via the Smit (The Moroccan Company for  Tourism Engineering). All the projects that we are going to carry out through the Smit will focus on animation projects, and not infrastructure-oriented projects”. 
A.R.