The History of Tourism In Morocco

The History of Morocco’s Tourism Sector

  The government of Morocco has placed tourism as a priority from the early twentieth century when, as early as 1918, the then French Protectorate created the Tourism Central Committee to ―create a place for French people to rest.‖ The government then invested in luxury hotels, transportation, travel administration, and ―any measure improving the stay of tourists.
An emphasis was put starting in 1937 on preserving historical monuments as a major source of tourism. After the independence of Morocco in 1956, there was a period of transition that diminished the focus of government on tourism, but that allowed for locals to develop for their own use the coastal tourism of Morocco. 
  Starting in 1965, the government created the Ministry of Tourism, and focused on improving the tourism sector‘s competitiveness. An important emphasis was placed on this sector relative to others as the government increased the share of the state budget going to tourism from 1.4% to 6.4% in 1965. At this point, the share of the private sector investment in tourism was as low as 20% (Stafford, 1996, quoted by Brault, 2004).
  The government‘s 3 year plans acted as a real catalyst of the sector, by identifying gaps and trends in the value chain. For example, in the plan from 1965 to 1967, it invested massively in ZAPs, priority investment zones for touristic infrastructures, to guide private investors into developing strong competing locations. As the tourists, building on the coastal tourism trend of locals, and assisted by the low cost mass tourism airline deals, started to be limited by the lack of capacity in middle market hotels, the 1968-1972 plan focused on building that capacity. As a result of this foresight and guidance, as well as the stability of the Moroccan kingdom compared to its neighbors of Algeria and Tunisia, the private sector share of investment jumped from 20% to 90% between 1965 and 1985 (Stafford, 1996, quoted by Brault, 2004).
  Starting in 1990, the government has been pushing for a diversification of the tourism cluster to attract more tourists and smooth the seasonal cycles. That includes ski and mountain sports for younger populations, internal tourism ranging from high class to low budget (e.g., family reunions), health tourism (e.g., Moulay Yacoub 800,000 treatment equivalents per year) and leisure sailing tourism (e.g., for boat owners to leave their boats in Morocco) (Berriane, 2002, quoted by Brault, 2004).
  In 2007, Morocco attracted 7.4 million tourists per year, of which 47% of the international tourists are French. Meanwhile, 23% of the tourists were locals. This means that Morocco has a real opportunity to diversify its customer base.