According to the latest figures released by the Observatoire du Tourisme, Morocco's tourist arrivals and tourism revenue are up sharply compared to 2019, despite a slight decline in overnight stays in classified hotels. In April 2023, 1.1 million tourists visited the Kingdom, an increase of 90% compared to the same month last year, driven by the rise in the arrival of foreign tourists on vacation - TES (91%) and Moroccans living abroad - MRE (90%). This growth in tourist arrivals in April also represents an increase of 4% compared to April 2019, with a decrease of 5% for TES and a rise of 19% for MRE.
Tourist arrivals from Spain, Britain, and Italy saw a significant increase of 35%, 13%, and 4%, respectively, in April 2022 compared to the same period in 2019. However, arrivals from Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium decreased by 33%, 26%, and 34% respectively. According to the Tourism Observatory, there was a remarkable surge of 121% in overnight stays in certified tourist accommodations in April 2022, with a corresponding increase of 122% for non-resident tourists and 116% for residents. In comparison to April 2019, overnight stays decreased 22%, with a 15% decline for non-residents and a 37% drop for residents.
In April 2023, the number of visits to major tourist destinations such as Marrakech (-7%), Agadir (-26%), Casablanca (-40%), Tangier (-21%), Fez (-31%) and Rabat (-37%) also declined compared to April 2019. However, non-resident travel revenues reached 7.1 billion dirhams compared with 6.5 billion dirhams in 2019, an increase of 10%.
In fact, tourist arrivals in Morocco are booming at the start of this year, with 5.1 million tourist arrivals by the end of May 2023, representing 20% growth compared with the same period in 2019.
The month of May, for its part, stands out with record growth of 55%, with 1.1 million arrivals compared to 2019.