Morocco’s Tourism Revenues Grew by 223.3% in September

Rabat – Morocco’s Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF) announced that tourism revenues appreciated by 223.3% in the third quarter of 2021.

Tourism revenues experienced a significant increase of 15.2% in June 2021, reaching MAD 12.9 billion ($1.4 billion) between June to August, compared to MAD 4.8 billion ($53 million) and MAD 24.1 billion ($2.6 billion) recorded in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

DEPF said that the revenues dropped by 17.6% to stand at MAD 20.3 billion ($2.2 billion) at the end of the first eight months of 2021, following a 61.5% decline from the same period in 2019.

After over a year of stagnation and constant uncertainty, the tourism sector is gradually recovering.

DEPF attributed Morocco’s good performance in the tourism sector to the reopening of national borders in mid-June 2021, especially during Operation Marhaba, as a result of which the number of tourists entering Morocco increased significantly.

Morocco relaunched Operation Marhaba in June of this year, an annual initiative led by the Moroccan government to encourage Moroccans living abroad (MREs) to return to the country during summer vacation.

Tourist arrivals to Morocco saw an increase of 16.2% to nearly 2,500,000 arrivals compared to 2,100,000 tourists at the end of August 2020.

For the period from June to August, the number of arrivals rose to nearly 2 million against 165,000 a year earlier.

Overnight stays decreased by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2021, against a 70.1% decrease in the second quarter of the same year.

After experiencing a significant downturn in the tourism sector, Moroccan authorities have adopted several measures to boost the sector once again, including the acceleration of the vaccination campaign and the reopening of borders.

Currently, over 21 million people have been fully vaccinated in Morocco. The government aims to achieve an 80% national vaccination rate by the end of 2021.