A whopping 1.3 million visitors arrived in Morocco in the month of April alone, marking a 17% year-on-year increase, according to the Economy and Finance Ministry’s Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF).
During Q1 of 2024, Morocco received 4.6 million visitors, up by 567,000 over the same period in the previous year, with arrivals to the country increasing by 12.8% to around 3.3 million.
The growth in visitor numbers is made up of a 15.4% rise in foreign tourists and a 9.8% increase in Moroccan expatriates. By the end of March 2024, classified accommodation facilities recorded over 5.5 million overnight stays, indicating a 2.9% increase over the previous year.
This rise was mainly driven by an increase in stays by non-residents (9%), offsetting a 12% decrease in stays by residents.
Tourism revenues reached 23.7 billion Moroccan MAD, showing a 5.1% decrease from the corresponding period in 2023. Nevertheless, revenues were significantly higher, 44%, than in Q1 of 2019.
By the end of 2023, the tourism sector had nearly regained its pre-crisis levels, with its value-added showing a recovery rate of 98.3%, a notable improvement from the 80.5% recorded a year earlier.
The value added of the tourism sector in 2022 increased by 25.8%, with improvements of 6.9% in Q4, 11.2% in Q3, 31.2% in Q2, and 53.9% in Q1-2023.