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Rabat – This year’s Travel & Tourism Development Index has ranked Morocco’s tourism industry as the second most developed among North African countries in 2021.
In the ranking, put together by the World Economic Forum, Morocco’s tourism earned second place after Egypt.
The “Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021,” ranking tracks countries’ performance on a set of factors and policies that stimulate the development of a sustainable and resilient travel and tourism industry.
The index assesses a tourism industry along five dimensions. These include countries’ enabling environment, travel, and tourism policies, infrastructure, resources, travel, and tourism sustainability.
Within the list of 117 countries included in the index, Morocco ranked 71th globally, and eighth among the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, the report specifies.
Measured against the 2019 ranking, Morocco’s ranking has dropped by four positions.
Commenting on the contemporary state of the global travel industry, the report notes that the pandemic caused the “worst crisis” the sector has suffered in modern history.
According to the report, lockdowns, and travel restrictions, caused the global tourism and travel sector to lose $4.5 trillion in GDP and 62 million jobs in 2020 alone.
Slow vaccination campaigns in lower-middle-income and low-income countries meant that post-pandemic recovery within the sector has been largely uneven as low vaccination rates correlate with tighter travel restrictions.
The Ukraine war further caused the global tourism and travel industry to stagnate indirectly, as it triggered safety concerns, disrupted air routes, and sparked new travel restrictions, the report explains.
The report concludes by pointing out the need for policymakers to invest in tourism and travel, and to make use of the lessons the pandemic offered to build back better.
The report further highlights the need to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient sector capable of withstanding further crises.
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