Rabat – Capitalizing on Morocco’s visa lift on Chinese tourists, a Chinese man has been making a fortune cooking his national dishes for customers from Morocco, China, and around the world.
Wang Luping opened ‘Great Wall’ in Fes in January 2017, serving Chinese tourists their traditional dishes, as many find it challenging to adapt to Moroccan cuisine.
A native of the Zhejiang Provinice in eastern China, Luping makes MAD 144,000 monthly, reported China Daily.
His business has flourished owing to the increasing number of Chinese tourists visiting Morocco, after the country extended a visa-free policy to China in June 2016.
Since then, Luping estimated that the number of Chinese tourists to Morocco has risen six-fold.
With few Chinese restaurants in Morocco, Luping said that he opened ‘Great Wall’ to cater to the needs of Chinese food lovers.
The restaurant is furnished with Chinese decor, including couplets, lanterns, and old-fashioned wooden armchairs
During the first half of 2017, Interbank Payment Center (CMI) reported a sharp rise in credit card spending made by Chinese tourists in Morocco, which increased by 900 percent during the first half of 2017.
The center explained that this rise came from in increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the kingdom following the abolition of visas for Chinese nationals.
The CMI, the only acquirer of payment transactions to accept Unionpay International (UPI) credit cards, confirmed through its figures the enthusiasm of Chinese tourists for shopping, catering, and hotel and leisure activities. The average basket of a Chinese tourist is MAD 2,100 per transaction, compared to MAD 1,500 for tourists carrying Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
