Rabat – Morocco’s Tourism Minister Lahcen Haddad said that some French tourists canceled their booking to Morocco, in the wake of the terrorist attacks that hit Paris earlier this month.
Haddad made the statement this Friday in an interview with Morocco’s daily news website Hespress.
Asked if Paris attacks will impact the performance of tourism industry in Morocco, Haddad said it is still premature to give an accurate evaluation to the effects of these attacks on tourism in the country.
“So far, we are still studying the possibility of a negative impact on Morocco’s major holiday destinations, such as Marrakech,” he said.
“Indeed, there are some booking cancellations to Morocco in the wake of the attacks. But we are not sure yet, if these cancellations will increase or it is just temporary and will drop again,” Haddad explained.
The Moroccan minister went on to add that his ministry was expecting tourists’ arrivals to be stable before Paris attacks with a slight drop of 0.2 percent.
“In other words, we were expecting to receive over 10, 2 million tourists. Meanwhile, we are studying the current situation and will give new accurate figures in the upcoming three weeks,” Hadded noted.
As for the measures put in place to avoid any possible drop of tourists’ arrivals in 2016, Haddad said his ministry would launch a new promotion strategy of Moroccan destinations based on a diversification of markets.
“The Moroccan Ministry of Tourism will mainly target the big and “promising markets,” such as Germany, UK, Russian, Turkey, Belgium and Netherlands, “he added.
He pointed out that Morocco would also target “promising” markets in Middle East, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, China, Brazil and other African countries.
“In addition to these markets, we will enhance our marketing campaigns in France, Spain and Italy in order to clear the confusion about safety of tourists in Morocco,” Haddad explained.
“We have to promote the image of the Kingdom as an innovative and modern country, a country that has managed to combine authenticity and modernity, democracy and commitment to the values of Islam,” he concluded.
