MOROCCO The United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism and the country’s National Hotel Industry Federation have signed an agreement outlining a new hotel classification system for Morocco.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI reaffirms his commitment to tourism as one of the top national priorities. In a meeting attended by UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai on the 10th Tourism Convention Day on Tuesday, the Morocco Ministry of Tourism concurrently launched Morocco’s Tourism Development Strategy Vision 2020.
In 2001, the king launched a national tourism strategy for Morocco, Vision 2010, a long-term program to trigger the sustainable and accelerated development of tourism. Since then, thanks to a range of strong tourism policies and actions including a well-structured product development strategy, the liberalization of air transport and increased promotional efforts, international tourism to Morocco has increased significantly.
International tourist arrivals grew almost twofold in less than a decade and are expected to reach 9.3 million this year, while earnings from international tourism tripled in the same period. In 2009, Morocco was among the world’s top performers with arrivals up by 6%.
“Behind these figures, which clearly demonstrate the striking success of your political vision, lies an even more important reality: the creation of economic wealth and employment for the people of Morocco,” Rifai said in an address to King Mohammed VI. “The continuation of this policy with the Vision 2020 is an opportunity to consolidate the achievements of the last decade, consider the lessons learned, and continue maximizing tourism’s contribution to the prosperity of Morocco and its people.”
The 10th edition of the Tourism Convention Day brought together some 1,000 national and international participants from the tourism sector to take stock of progress made so far and officially launch Vision 2020. This ambitious development strategy, designed to position tourism as a pillar of the national economy, has the support of UNWTO and represents a new step in its longstanding relationship with Morocco, a UNWTO member since 1975.