Recently released figures on air traffic growth in Morocco came as yet another indication that the kingdom's Vision 2010 tourism development strategy is on track.
Introducing the annual report of the National Airports Office (Office National Des Aroports, ONDA) last week, CEO Abdelhanine Benallou announced that passenger air traffic had grown by 18% in 2005. This is more than twice the global growth rate in the industry, which reached 7.6% last year, according to statistics published by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Marrakech international airport recorded the largest increase, with an annualised 32% jump in passenger numbers in 2005, topping the 2m passenger mark for the first time.
Following 14% growth in passenger air traffic in 2004, this impressive performance reinforces the upward trend the sector has recorded recently. Benallou linked this improvement with the ONDA's planned and voluntary policy. He voiced satisfaction regarding the sector's performance over the last few years, and declared that ONDA would press on with its airport development programme.
Benallou also said that a number of projects included in ONDA's 2004-2007 investment plan had already been undertaken, such as the construction of a new terminal at Marrakech, the expansion of the runway at the Essaouira airport, and the installation of an advanced approach and landing radar for Casablanca's Mohammed V airport.
Benallou recalled that the process of opening up Morocco's aviation sector had led to the signing of the open skies agreement with the EU in December 2005. The agreement has encouraged foreign airline companies, including regular passenger air transport, to enter the Moroccan market, he added.
He added that ONDA was looking to reinforce its position at the regional level, while adopting a forward-looking tariff policy in regard to aeronautical and airport royalties.
At the international level, the profit-sharing measures adopted both for the creation of new lines and the reinforcement of existing ones includes both regular airlines and low-cost companies.
Benallou underlined that the presence of ONDA at the 11th World Route Development Forum in September 2005 in Copenhagen had allowed him to promote the new tariff scheme.
Morocco is aware that it needs to maintain this upward trend in order to achieve the objectives of its Vision 2010 tourism development strategy. To meet the criteria, such as reaching 10m arrivals by 2010, will require Morocco to add roughly 100 new weekly flights each year until 2010, so as to achieve a 15% annual growth in arrivals.
Morocco seems to be well on track thus far, with tourist arrivals up 16% during the first five months of 2006 over the same period in 2005. Meanwhile, the number of overnight stays recorded a 9% increase.
A few weeks ago, Tourism Minister Adil Douiri had estimated that 6.5m tourists would visit the country this year, an increase of 700,000 over 2005. Douiri said he expected tourism revenue to be between $5.1bn and $5.6bn for 2006, up from last year's $4.6bn, amounting to 10% of GDP.
This follows encouraging results for 2005, with arrivals up 7% at 5.84m, although this fell short of the required 15% annual increase to reach the Vision 2010 target.
However, as the increase in the number of beds fell short of plans, most Moroccan cities are overwhelmed with tourists this summer. This has prompted the national tourism office to cancel a campaign planned to attract Moroccan expatriates by offering them discounted prices.
With huge investments in all types of tourist accommodation recently announced or already underway, and airlines announcing new connections every month, most analysts agree that the main challenge for Morocco will be to maintain the inflow of tourists in the medium to long term.
With service quality a key condition that encourages visitors to come back, and to benefit from word-of-mouth advertising, most observers agree that Morocco should focus on training more tourism professionals. A number of encouraging initiatives have recently been launched, such as the opening of a tourism training academy in June 2005 by French group Accor and an apprenticeship training centre last May - both in co-operation with Morocco's vocational training body.
© Oxford Business Group 2006
