Tourism is having a complicated year. Professionals in the sector still seem to be navigating troubled waters. Between suspension of flights and lack of clarity from the government, tourism does not seem to be recovering from the injuries caused by the coronavirus crisis. The increase in cases in Europe does not help the situation. Will the recovery still be compromised by the pandemic?
Tourism in Morocco faces severe restrictions since the spread of the coronavirus. With the recent flight suspensions, tourism experts said Marrakech and its region suffered the most from the suspensions.
Marrakech, Essaouira and El Haouz were counting on the return of tourists for an economic recovery in the region, but the tourism industry in Morocco is still struggling to bounce back due to the constant suspension of international flights.
In addition, Marrakech-Menara airport is experiencing a continuous decline in the number of weekly flights. It went from 655 weekly flights in mid-October to 516 flights in the week of November 15-21, then to 488 flights this week (November 22-28).
A situation that continues to weigh heavily on tourism professionals, as explained to MoroccoLatestNews, Zoubir Bouhoute, tourism expert and director of the Provincial Tourism Council (CPT) of Ouarzazate.
“Since the suspension of flights and the increase in cases of the coronavirus in Europe, the resumption of tourism is compromised. First, there was Morocco’s decision to suspend flights with several countries such as France, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany and even England. These contribute 40% of the volume of international tourists ”, says the expert.
Europe, a lost market for Moroccan tourism
The pandemic which is resuming more vigorously in Europe does not seem to arrange the affairs of tourist operators in Morocco. Indeed, Europe is experiencing a fifth wave in the coronavirus epidemic. After a lull this summer, the number of cases is rising sharply. Many countries take restrictive measures, others require vaccination.
With Austria reconfined, curfew in the Netherlands, tightening of restrictions in other countries of the European Union, Europe has once again become the epicenter of the Covid-19 epidemic. Austria, again, became the first EU country to make vaccination compulsory for the entire population, from February.
France, for her part, imposes a third dose of vaccine on those over 65 for the moment, on pain of losing their health pass. But, she refuses the idea of confinement of unvaccinated people, a measure “not necessary in France” for Emmanuel Macron.
“The pandemic is starting to gain ground in Europe, as we saw in Austria, which is reconfiguring. The case of France, whose number of new cases has quadrupled and exceeds 40,000 cases per day, has already been the subject of a flight suspension by Morocco», Regrets Bouhoute.
“This volume of contamination in Europe, Morocco’s leading tourism market, is hurting the sector which today is struggling to resume normal activity”, he added.
According to him, “Morocco, with the new conditions of access to the territory, does not make things easier for tourism ”.
“The hasty decisions taken by Morocco in a short period of time, such as the suspension of flights, do not leave the professionals of the sector time to find solutions. The decision to switch countries to List B and impose new conditions also weighs heavily. This creates a climate of mistrust for people wishing to go to Morocco who fear sudden closures ”, he believes.
The expert draws a sad conclusion for tourism this year and believes that the figures will be as low as the year 2020, considered the worst for the sector in the last decade.
“We are going to end the year 2021 as we concluded that of 2020, with a drop compared to 2019. In 2020, it was an 80% loss of activity. This year will not be any better, despite a slight improvement given Operation Marhaba. It made it possible to welcome 2 million MRE ”, notes Zoubir Bouhoute.
Tourism revenue on the rise, but still unsatisfactory
According to the Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF), tourism receipts amounted to 15.9 billion dirhams (MMDH) for the third quarter of 2021. An increase of 202% compared to the same quarter of 2020.
These revenues remain, however, down 40.2% compared to the same period of the year 2019, notes the DEPF in its economic report of November 2021. In view of these developments, the year-on-year decline of these revenues fell to -6.1% for the first nine months of 2021, after -58.1% in the first half of 2021. Compared to their level at the end of September 2019, they fell by 58.9%.
For the month of September 2021 alone, these revenues continued their improvement started last June, registering an appreciation, year on year, of 158.4%, after + 289.7% in August, + 144.2% in July and + 15.2% in June.
As for overnight stays and tourist arrivals, they reached 2.9 and 1.63 million respectively during the first two months of the third quarter of 2021. Last year, they reached 1.08 and 1.58 million and 5 , 52 and 3.87 million in 2019.
At the end of August 2021, the number of arrivals increased, in one year, by 16.2% to 2.1 million, while that of overnight stays declined slightly by 0.5% to 5.6 million.
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