The overall subsidy budget is 120 million DH
Upgrade : The operation is part of the hotel park upgrading program launched by the SDR Tourisme Souss-Massa. Other establishments will be selected within the framework of an AMI to benefit from the approach.
The competitiveness of the tourist offer of the Souss-Massa region depends on the renovation of dilapidated establishments in the seaside resort of Agadir. This is what the regional subsidy program dedicated to the renovation and upgrading of the city’s hotel establishments came to respond to. Today, twelve hotel establishments with 6,000 beds are being renovated in the seaside resort. They were selected after four calls for expressions of interest. As a reminder, this program was launched in 2020. It carries an overall envelope of 120 million DH allocated by the Ministry of Tourism, the regional council and the municipality of ‘Agadir. It provides for the granting of dedicated grants to support selected candidate establishments. For the moment, the amounts committed, which cover subsidies and technical support, have reached an overall budget of 104 million DH. On the ground, the projects are taking shape.
The most advanced beneficiary hotels are at a 60 to 80% completion stage. In the medium term, the approach should breathe new life into hotel capacity which has been greatly reduced in recent years.
This situation has worsened during the health crisis with the current result of the closure of several hotels.
It should be noted that a similar program has been initiated in favor of tourist accommodation units established in the rural areas of the region. Remember that to finance this support mechanism, the Souss-Massa regional council offers an overall budget of 10 million DH.
In this context, an agreement was concluded between the Ministry of Tourism, the Souss-Massa regional council, the wilaya of Souss-Massa, the SDR Tourisme and the RDTR. The subsidy that will be granted should cover 50% of the investment amount, capped at 400,000 DH per structure. For the time being, 13 establishments have been selected following an initial call for expressions of interest. For these selected units, more than 6 million DH are committed. It should be noted that the Souss-Massa region is home to 305 rural tourist accommodation establishments, with an overall capacity of 2,700 beds and more than 1,368 campsites. The number of jobs generated by these establishments is estimated at more than 800 positions. As a reminder, this niche benefited more than ten years ago from the tourism micro-enterprise development program, implemented by the Souss-Massa regional council.
The operation had aroused enthusiasm on the part of project promoters and had given rise to several structures in the hinterland. Today, membership in the current program is explained by the dilapidated state of a large number of accommodation structures. Their situation having been aggravated during the year 2020 due to the effects of the health crisis.