London – Morocco is set to reinforce the contribution of tourism in its economy through
attracting more tourists the British magazine, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) wrote in its latest edition.
“Attracting travellers to Morocco is not difficult, given its array of natural attractions and reputation as a cultural hot-spot,” wrote the FDI.
“The country’s government is not resting on its laurels, and has launched a plan to pull in more tourists, and in doing so attract more foreign investment and create more jobs,” underscored the magazine.
To highlight the importance of tourism in Morocco’s economy, FDI used figures released by the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation making the point that tourism is Morocco’s largest foreign exchange earner, the second biggest contributor to GDP, and the second largest single job-creating force, responsible for about 400,000 in terms of direct employment, and considerably more in terms of secondary employment.
“Year on year, the industry has continued to grow – albeit with hiccups. In 2010, there were 7.9 million tourists visiting the country – a 12% increase on 2009’s figures, when the global financial crisis impacted the tourism industry,” wrote the same source.
Morocco’s tourism sector is “certainly strong enough to withstand any glitches in the long term – and the Moroccan government is committed to a long-term plan,” added the FDI, pointing to the Vision 2020 which aims notably at doubling the number of annual foreign tourists, tripling the number of domestic tourists, and creating hotel facilities to the tune of about 200,000 beds.
Tourism Showed Slight Positive Increase In 2011
Rabat –
Tourism industry showed “slight increase” in 2011, according to the managing director of the Moroccan National Office of Tourism (ONMT) Abdelhamid Addou, amid the economic crisis that hits the world.
Addou said the number of arrivals were 2% higher year on year.
“It is a good result compared with competing countries,” notably Egypt and Tunisia, although it is also “frustrating” compared with the expectations, Abdou told Moroccan French-speaking newspaper “L’Economiste.”
“The year 2012 will surely be very difficult,” added Addou who stressed the need to “increase efforts” in order to overcome this situation, while boosting communication campaigns.
