Rabat – Travel news outlet Travel Awaits has named Morocco the eighth most popular tour destination for 2023, placing the country ahead of Egypt, Thailand, Jordan, and Mexico.
Travel Awaits based its ranking, published on July 17, on booking data of leading global travel agencies, including Canada’s G Adventures, Australia’s Intrepid Travel, Switzerland’s EF Go Tours, and the US’ Tauck and Trafalgar agencies.
As countries worldwide have eased their travel regulations related to the COVID-19 pandemic, bookings have increased in the past months, reflecting the public’s interest in resuming international travel. Morocco remains a favorite travel destination.
The North African country, for instance, was named among this year’s top destinations by Intrepid Travel along with Egypt, Italy, and Turkey.
“Home to spice markets, ornate doors, several types of tagine, and more mosques than you can count,” Travel Awaits wrote, “Morocco [an] exotic yet affordable North African country is just a short ferry ride from Spain.”
The 2023 bookings further point to the popularity of Morocco among foreign tourists. Ranked 8th in the most popular tourist destinations for next year, Morocco outperformed Iceland, which was placed 13th in the list, ahead of Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
Great Britain, however, topped the tour destination list and is followed by its neighboring country, Ireland. Southern Europe and Latin American countries also enjoyed wide popularity among tourists, Travel Awaits noted, with Italy and Greece occupying the third and fourth positions. Peru, Costa Rica, and the Galapagos followed in the ranking.
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The “strong” bookings for 2023 highlight people’s readiness to “prioritize spending on travel expenditures, and this is more vital than ever for communities that were financially crippled by the cessation of international travel and where inflation is even worse,” stated Matt Berna, president of Intrepid Travel, North America.
Despite occasional spikes in COVID-19 cases, the overall number of active cases has dropped significantly over the past months, leading to a gradual recovery in nations’ tourism sectors.
In June, Morocco recorded more than 1.14 million tourist arrivals, marking a 235% growth compared to the same period in 2021. The statistics include Moroccans residing abroad who have waited to return home after over two years of lockdowns and restricted mobility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A month prior, Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism reported that the country’s tourism revenues in foreign currency had accumulated to MAD 20 billion ($1.92 billion) in the first five months of 2022. The numbers are expected to grow, as August commonly records the highest flow of domestic and international tourists across Morocco.
However, American rating agency Fitch has warned of the repercussions of the economic recession in the European Union on Morocco’s tourism sector, arguing that a recession is becoming “more likely” to loom the Eurozone, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the drop in gas imports from Russia.
