Rabat – Contrary to reports suggesting that tourist arrivals to Morocco’s main destinations will drop after Paris terrorist attacks, official figures show that the number of visitors to Agadir in November increased by 30 percent compared to the same period in 2014.
The number of British holidaymakers who visited the southern city of Morocco increased by 16 percent, while the number of tourists from Saudi Arabia grew by 47 percent last month compared to the same period last year.
On the other hand, fewer French and German tourists visited Agadir last month compared to November 2014. French tourist arrivals dropped by 15 percent and German tourist arrivals decreased by 5 percent.
The number of Polish tourists who visited Agadir in November also dropped by 41 percent.
These figures were disclosed by head of the Regional Tourism Council of Souss-Massa-Draa Youssef Maoun in an interview with Medis24.
Youssef Maoun expects the number of tourist arrivals in Agadir to drop by 5 percent by the end of this year.
The news comes after Morocco’s Tourism Minister, Lahcen Haddad, said that some French tourists canceled their bookings to Morocco in the wake of the terrorist attacks that hit Paris last month.
Morocco is currently launching a new promotion strategy of Moroccan destinations based on a diversification of markets.
Earlier this month, a large Moroccan delegation of tourism industry representatives traveled to Russia on a three-day working visit to encourage tourism between the two countries.
The Moroccan delegation sought to boost Morocco’s presence in the Russian market during the visit, with the aim of attracting 100,000 Russian tourists in 2016.
