Rabat – Forbes Middle East magazine has featured Head of Morocco’s Tourism Office (ONMT) Adel El Fakir and CEO of Royal Air Maroc Abdelhamid Addou among its Top 100 Travel & TourismLeaders for 2023.
Forbes’ list recognizes the role of the “most influential leaders” in the tourism and travel industry.
Listing El Fakir as 18th on the list, Forbes recalled the ONMT’s chief decades-long experience in the tourism industry.
The magazine also emphasized Morocco’s tourism assets, recalling that the North African country welcomed about 11 million tourists in 2022.
As part of Morocco’s pledge to boost the sector, ONMT has launched a series of initiatives to diversify and expand partnerships with the aim of promoting Morocco’s tourism products and assets.
One of the latest such initiatives is “Morocco the Kingdom of Light.”
Forbes recalled that the tourism office launched the campaign in April 2022, recalling that ONMT develops “commercial and marketing programs with tour operators and airline companies globally.”
In April, ONMT also announced its newly developed 2023-2023 action plan “Light in Action,” seeking to focus on improving different aspects of Morocco’s tourism industry, including airline, digital, and marketing.
The action plan is in line with Morocco’s 2023-2026 tourism roadmap, which the country launched on March 17 .
With an allocated funding of MAD 6 Billion ($592,7 million), the roadmap aims to attract 17.5 million tourists, generate MAD 120 Billion ($11,8 billion) in receipts, and create 200,000 new jobs by 2026.
Meanwhile, Forbes listed Royal Air Maroc’s Addou as 41st on the list. Royal Air Maroc is Morocco’s national carrier, serving local and international networks.
In March, the company announced that it will provide 6.2 million seats on 90 air routes globally for its summer 2023 program. Under the plan, the airline made available over 2.3 million seats for flights in Europe, with 902 weekly flights connecting 11 Moroccan airports to 34 European destinations.
Leaders from 33 nationalities feature on the worldwide ranking, Forbes said, with “Emiratis leading with 16 entries, followed by 12 Saudis, and 10 British nationals.”
Ahed bin Saeed Al Maktoum from Emirates Airline tops the ranking, followed by Akbar Al Baker from Qatar Airways, and Helal Saeed Almari from the Department of Economy and Tourism in Dubai.
