The North Africa Post
Tourism contribution to Morocco’s GDP stood at 7% with a turnover of 115 billion dirhams in 2016, tourism and air traffic minister Mohamed Sajid said.
Speaking at the weekly government meeting, the Minister said that the tourism sector is among the key drivers of employment in Morocco offering 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
In terms of foreign currency revenues, the sector brought 64.2 billion dirhams, he said, adding that the number of tourist arrivals slightly grew from 9.3 million to 10.3 million tourists between 2010 and 2016.
In this respect, he stressed the need of tapping into Morocco’s tourist potential, which largely remains unexploited, noting that hotel occupancy rate remains at a low level of 40%.
Concerning air traffic, the minister said that passengers using Morocco’s airports rose from 9.2 million in 2003 to 18.2 million in 2016, thanks notably to the open-sky policy adopted by the country since 2004.
