2023-07-16 06:50:36
Tourism-Morocco: Exceptional results in summer
Published this Tuesday, July 4 by the Tourism Observatory, the figures of the indicators for May do not contradict the strong growth which characterized the first four months of 2023. A dynamic which will make it possible to erase the poor results of the last two years and to exceed forecasts with more than 13 million visitors and MAD 100 million in revenue.
Since January 2023, the tourism sector has been on an upward curve, with a number of arrivals and an amount of revenue never reached in the last twenty years. An exceptional dynamic that will make 2023 the year of historic records.
1.13 million arrivals compared to 730,000 in May 2019
Thus, during the month of May, the volume of arrivals at the Kingdom’s border posts reached nearly 1.13 million non-resident visitors, i.e. a sharp increase of 41% compared to May 2022: +44% for foreign tourists staying (TES) and +36% for Moroccans residing abroad (MRE).
Compared to May 2019, which had generated 730,000 non-resident visitors, arrivals in May 2023 increased by 55%, with growth of 99% for MREs and 33% for TES.
Spain, United Kingdom, France and Italy still on the rise
An increase in foreign arrivals due to several international source markets such as Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Italy which showed a significant increase compared to May 2019, respectively by 67%, 50%, 36% and 23%.
Conversely, the German and Dutch markets, which have experienced a decline since the start of the year, posted a drop compared to May 2019, of 17 and 4% respectively.
One million more visitors compared to 2019
The accumulation of the first 5 months of the current year shows that the volume of arrivals at border posts reached 5.17 million visitors, an increase of 129% compared to the same period of 2022, with a growth of 151% of arrivals from TES and 107% from MREs.
Compared to the first 5 months of 2019, arrivals increased by 20%, i.e. an increase of 48% for MRE tourists and 4% for non-resident foreigners. Knowing that the number of summer arrivals promises to be greater than that of the first 5 months of the year, Morocco will have no difficulty in exceeding the 13 million visitors who had been counted during the reference year. 2019, before the health crisis.
Spain and the United Kingdom lead foreign overnight stays
By source market, Spain and the United Kingdom posted the strongest growth compared to the same period of 2019, up 46% and 29% respectively. Same upward curve for the USA and Italy which increased by 8 and 10% respectively. On the other hand, the German, Dutch and Belgian markets experienced a significant drop, respectively of 34%, 27% and 24% compared to the end of May 2019.
Same positive dynamic in terms of overnight stays, with a total number of overnight stays in classified tourist accommodation establishments which increased by 37% in May 2023 compared to May 2022, i.e. a growth of 59% for non- residents and 159% for resident visitors.
During this month, the main destinations posted double-digit increases compared to May 2019, with overnight stays increasing by 50% in Marrakech, 42% in Agadir, 44% in Casablanca, 112% in Tangier, 4% in Fez and finally 61% in Rabat.
Virtual stagnation of overnight stays
During the first 5 months of the current year, the total overnight stays recorded in classified tourist accommodation establishments recorded an increase of 108% compared to the same period of 2022, with a growth of 177% for non- residents and 30% for local tourists.
Compared to the end of May 2019, the number of overnight stays increased by an average of 2%, with a drop of 2% for non-resident tourists and an increase of 11% for residents. By destination, these are the cities of Marrakech , Tangier and Essaouira which achieve the best scores in terms of overnight stays, exceeding the 2019 level by 11%, 13% and 17% respectively.
As for Agadir, Casablanca and Fez, they saw their overnight stays drop respectively by 9% for the first and 11% for the following compared to the level of the same period of 2019.
A historical revenue record
In May 2023, travel receipts in foreign currencies generated by the tourist activity of non-residents in Morocco amounted to 8.5 billion dirhams against 5.6 billion dirhams in 2019, an increase of 51%.
An exceptional figure on the eve of the three months of school holidays which correspond to the very high season for domestic and international tourism.
From January to the end of May 2023, travel receipts in foreign currencies generated by the tourist activity of non-residents in Morocco amounted to 41 Mmdh against 29 Mmdh during the first 5 months of 2019, an exceptional increase of 42%. With such growth in revenue, the sector should have no trouble exceeding the 100 million dirhams that were planned by the supervising minister.
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