The Moroccan government has recently signed an agreement with both the Businessmen Association and the Tourism Federation under which the three parties agreed to set the Moroccan tourism strategy for 2000-2010. The agreement also allocates specific responsibilities to workers in both the public and private sectors to play their roles in raising the standards and expanding the scale of Moroccan tourism.
The London-based Asharq Al Awsat newspaper said that the agreement defines medium and long-term objectives for attracting about 10 million tourists to Morocco by the year 2010, including 7 million tourists who would stay in classified hotels. The newspaper added that 30 billion dirhams (approximately 3 billion dollars), have been allocated for investment in hotels over the same period. The new plan aims at establishing five tourist compounds on the Moroccan shores with the capacity of 160,000 beds versus the present 30,000. The plan also aims at establishing 80,000 hotel rooms.
The Moroccan Bayan Al Yawm newspaper said that this plan has come as a result of efforts exerted by of the government and and the Moroccan General Trade Union since the beginning of this year. The two sides reiterated the importance of the fact that all those involved in the tourism sector should be aware that this sector requires reviewing as the number of tourists to Morocco reached last year 2.28 million with an increase of 7.3 percent over the number in 1999.
“Revenues from tourism, according to the new plan, are expected to reach about 480 billion dirhams (approximately 48 billion dollars), in the next ten years, at an annual average of 4.8 billion dollars versus 2 billion dollars at present,” Al Sharq Al Awsat, said - Albawaba.com
