Morocco Calls for More Resilient Tourism in Africa

Rabat – Morocco has urged international tourism operators to boost the resilience of the sector in Africa which is facing economic and environmental crises.

“I am looking forward to more resilient tourism in the African continent thanks to an inclusive continental approach that will increase the awareness of Africa’s assets thus improving the attractiveness of Africa as a destination,” Morocco’s Minister of Tourism, Handicraft, and Social and Solidarity Economy Fatim-Zahra Ammor said last week during the UNWTO Executive Council in Marrakech.

The high-level meeting provided an “opportunity to reaffirm priority orientations to promote the prosperity and development” of the tourism sector, Ammor noted.

Echoing Ammor’s statement, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said that “now is the time to fast-track building a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable sector.”

On the eve of the meeting, the UN General Assembly received a draft resolution calling upon all UN organisms to promote tourism in line with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The resolution secured the support of 104 countries, stressing the vital role of the tourism sector in securing the economic and social well-being of communities across the world.

The decline in tourism

Consecutive lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have unveiled the crucial role the tourism sector has in driving economies worldwide, particularly in countries that rely heavily on economic activity to attract foreign currency, support local businesses, and partially address unemployment.

In Morocco, thousands of formal and informal workers in the tourism and hospitality sectors were severely impacted by lockdowns with many suffering from serious financial crises leading in some cases to bankruptcy.

The government has worked in providing financial support to former workers and hospitality establishments such as hotels, however, a significant part of the labor force did not benefit from the aid package as they remain undocumented.

Despite national efforts to formalize different sectors, Morocco’s shadow economy continues to dominate most for-profit activities. This comes at a large cost for the government which is missing out on significant tax revenues and workers who can not benefit from state-led initiatives in times of crisis.

In addition to constraints regarding the global sanitary and economic crisis, climate change is likely to permanently alter our migratory or travel patterns and trajectories.

In this context, pioneers in the tourism and hospitality sectors have been calling for the decarbonization of the sector to contribute to the overarching goal of limiting global warming by keeping the rise of temperatures below the 1.5 degrees celsius threshold by 2100.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the industry is responsible for 8 – 10% of global greenhouse emissions. This calls for change, CEO of Australian travel agency Intrepid Travel James Thornton said in October during the Travel Convention in Marrakech.

Calling for the “rapid decarbonization” of the travel sector, Thornton said that “the reality is there is no vaccine for climate change. We won’t have to show our customers if we don’t tackle climate change.”

The decarbonization agenda calls for the use of sustainable aviation fuel to cut emissions as a first step toward adopting aircraft that are powered by cleaner energy such as green hydrogen.

While Boeing flew the first hydrogen fuel-cell-powered plane in 2008, the commercialization of similar fuel-cell-powered airlines is likely to take couple more years.

In the meantime, many countries have committed to the promotion of eco-tourism. Morocco, for instance, launched the 2008 “green key” label to celebrate environmentally responsible hotels in addition to the “blue flag” label dedicated to the cleanest beaches in the country.