September 2007

26/09/07
Morocco has become an increasingly popular holiday destination among British tourists

According to new research. Figures from the country's tourism department showed that between January and July this year, 261,000 Britons visited Morocco for a holiday.

The study found that the destination was also highly popular among people from other European countries, with many more tourists coming from places including France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most of the tourists were said to have visited Marrakech, which saw an 11 per cent increase in the number of visitors since last year.

Casablanca, Tangier and Fez were also said to be major tourist hotspots, along with Rabat and Agadir. Across the country as a whole, the tourism department recorded a ten per cent increase in tourist numbers from the same period in 2006.

27/09/2007
Morocco to expand annual airport capacity to 30m by 2010

Morocco plans to increase its airport capacity to 30 million passengers per year by 2010, MAP quotes Director General of the Moroccan Airport Office (ONDA) Abdelhanine Benallou as saying on Wednesday (September 26th).

Casablanca's Mohammed V international airport is expected to receive 11 million passengers per year following the construction of a new terminal. Plans call for the Marrakech-Menara airport, which currently receives 24% of the county's passengers, to handle 10m passengers per year by 2010.
 
While the Ibn Batouta airport in Tangier is expected to receive 1.5m after the completion of expansions. Airports in Oujda-Angad, Dakhla and Rabat-Salé are expected to handle a combined 6 million passengers by 2010. The push for increased air traffic is part of Morocco's strategy to attract 10m tourists by 2010. Tourism receipts are the country's main source of foreign currency. Income from the sector for the January-August period increased 10.6% to 31.4 billion dirhams over the same period in 2006. 
 

17/10/07

Morocco wants 7m

A series of initiatives are underway to boost Morocco’s visitor count to seven million this year.

First results for 2006 indicate that tourism revenues in Morocco totaled $6.24 billion, up by an impressive 17.4 per cent over 2005, according to numbers released at ITB Berlin 2007.
UNWTO figures for visitor arrivals in Morocco for the first 11 months of 2006 show a 9.3 per cent increase over the same period in 2005.
Since 2001, Morocco has been implementing its tourism development plan ‘Vision 2010’, launched by Moroccan King Mohammed VI to attract 10 million international visitors to the Kingdom by 2010. Tourism growth has been helped by the implementation of an open-skies policy with Europe, and especially by the development of services from a number of low-cost carriers.
Morocco is opening up new regions to tourism, and is targeting six coastal areas for development. These include the Tan Tan region on the southwest coast where, by 2010, around new 5,000 hotel beds and 2,000 apartments will be available for visitors in a large integrated resort area. Tourism development will also be focused on areas where renovation of historic structures are taking place, such as the UNESCO-listed ancient city of Fez, where the medina has been restored, and where a project to renovate the old Arabic gardens in underway.

 

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Morocco makes top tourist list yet again!

The "Bluelist" - the global travel guide has once again put Fez in its top emerging destinations to visit.

The Lonely Planet Bluelist 2008 has included Fez a decision which should boost tourist numbers. For example, last year the guide had hotly tipped the city of Belfast, which later saw record numbers of holidaymakers heading to the northern Irish capital.

The "GoList" includes the eastern African country of Eritrea, Montenegro in Eastern Europe, the Tiwi Islands in Australia, Portugal's Azores archipelago, the Syrian capital Damascus and the historic city of Fez, Morocco.

The Bluelist 2008 also features chapters on travelling to Islamic countries, where to go to see endangered wildlife in their natural habitat, and a selection of traveller's tips and photographs.