The Moroccan government said Friday that Morocco plans to spend 6.1 billion dirhams ($580 million) on developing the tourism sector by 2026 to attract more visitors and bring in foreign exchange.
The prime minister’s office said the government intends to spend more money on marketing, develop more types of attractions for tourists, upgrade hotels and build new ones, and train more people to work in the sector.
It aims to attract 17.5 million tourists by 2026, compared to 11 million last year. In 2019, Morocco recorded 13 million visitors.
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The government said the plan will help create 200,000 new jobs in the sector over the next four years.
Last year, revenue from the sector more than doubled from 2021, reaching AED91 billion, exceeding 2019 levels.
Morocco recorded a total of three million tourists in 2020, ranking 53rd in the world in absolute terms.
Without country size, this ranking might not make much sense. Comparing tourist numbers with the Moroccan population paints a more comparable picture: With 0.076 tourists per inhabitant, Morocco ranks 131st in the world. In North Africa it ranks fourth.
In 2020, Morocco generated around 4.51 billion US dollars in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 3.2 percent of GDP and about 43 percent of all international tourism revenue in North Africa.
