Morocco: First Non-European Destination for Spanish Tourists

Rabat – Morocco is the first non-European destination for Spanish tourists and is also the country with the largest number of African tourists in Spain in April of this year, according to Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE).

INE’s latest report of inbound and outbound tourism in Spain details that a total of 1.97 million Spanish tourists visited other countries in April 2022.

Almost 1.74 million Spanish tourists chose to travel to other European countries such as France, Portugal, and Italy, while the rest chose other non-European destinations such as Morocco, the United States, and Turkey.

Morocco is Spanish tourists’ biggest destination outside the European Union, with 81,806 travelers, constituting 4.2% of the total Spanish tourists, visiting the North African country in April. Following are the United States with 52,756 (2.7%) of Spanish visitors, and Turkey with 17,894 (0.9%).

The figures point to an increase from last year, when 76,689 Spanish tourists traveled to Morocco in April. It is also a significant improvement from April 2020, when only 11,799 Spanish tourists came to Morocco.

Morocco is also the leading African country in terms of the number of tourists that visited Spain in April of this year, with 44,881 documented tourists. This is an increase from last year’s April, which saw 31,731 Moroccan tourists travel to Spain.

Algeria, with 6,075, had the second-highest number of tourists in Spain in April 2022.

INE used data from three mobile telephone operators in Spain to produce this report. The agency said that the collection of data came through monitoring the position of phones, registered through these operators. The report classified Spanish residents as “travelers” (tourists) in other countries.

The report also noted that if a person is traveling with two or more phones, they will count as two or more additional travelers in the data; which makes this report an “experimental” data compilation.

Travel between Morocco and Spain had been halted since 2019, and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 prompted the Moroccan government to close border crossings with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

After the resumption of warm diplomatic relations between the two countries, Moroccan-Spanish maritime borders were opened on April 8, following the April 7 joint announcement by Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.

In line with the joint announcement, Morocco’s land borders with the Spanish enclaves were recently opened on May 17.

While the move was met with popular celebrations and a general show of approval, Morocco has insisted that the opening of borders will not alter its determination to eradicate the smuggling of goods from the Spanish enclaves.