A recent report published by the World Economic Forum indicates that in the category of safety and security for tourists, Morocco ranks 28th out of 140 countries. It even beat out “safe” countries like the United Kingdom (45th) and Germany (41st).
To make its conclusions, the NGO considered 13 other criteria. These include tourism policies, business stability, and overall infrastructure. In the category of tourism, Morocco ranked 26th. In environmental stability, it ranked 44th, and in the business sector, it arrived in 38th place.
Areas of improvement within the report outline that Morocco should invest in health and hygiene (97th) and human resources and labor market (99th). It also advised that the kingdom needs to further invest in tourist service infrastructure (78th) and international openness.
Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco’s economy. In the first half of 2019, over 8 million tourists arrived in the country. “The tourist destinations of Marrakech and Agadir alone generated 57% of hotel nights in the first seven months of 2019,” stated Morocco’s Tourism Observatory.”
Since 2016, Morocco has experienced a remarkable boom. Tourism has grown by 10 percent with the trend continuing upward. In 2018, BMI, a research firm that provides macroeconomic, industry, and financial analysis, revealed that 11.35 million tourists entered Morocco. This was an increase of over 1 million tourists. The same report showed that the traveler interest is originating from the United States (up 29%) Germany (up 15%), the Netherlands and Italy (up 9%), and France and Spain (8%).
Although Morocco still needs a significant amount of work on its land infrastructure for tourists, the World Bank report indicates it is the country most improved in terms of the business environment (38th globally) and air transport infrastructure (58th).
Morocco’s Gross Domestic Product received 70 Billion MAD from tourism in 2018.