Hotels in the Moroccan city of Agadir reported a record number of Moroccan tourists in 2010. According to Nuqudy.com, last year the number of tourists amounted to 190,200 compared to 168,000 tourists in 2009. Consequently, an increase was posted in the number of nights, which amounted to 592.756 in 2010 compared to 571,688 in 2009.
Sources in Morocco claim the growing tourism activity is due to the opening of the highway between Marrakech and Agadir. This road has reduced the travel time between the two cities by half, say the ride now takes two hours instead of four.
The French market is the biggest for Morocco's tourism sector. However, there has been a growing flow of tourists from the Russian market. In 2010, a total of 24,735 visitors arrived from Russia to Agadir compared with 11,621 visitors in 2009.
