Morocco targets British and Gulf tourists

Morocco Tourism sets sights high Moroccan tourism minister Lahcen Haddad recently released positive numbers for tourism in the country. Morocco has seen a 10 percent increase in foreign tourists in July 2012 compared to last year. The number of Spanish tourists increased by 37 percent, the number of British tourists by 9 percent.
Reservations in hotels have also increased by 13 percent for foreign tourists, while the number of internal reservations rocketed up to 22 percent.
Haddad said: \"The ministry of tourism predicts that the 2012 income from tourism will be around the same figure achieved last year, which is 60 billion Moroccan dirhams. Taking into consideration that the first half of 2012 has witnessed a recession in the tourism market due to the financial crisis in Europe, it is not an easy achievement to keep the same numbers of 2011,\" said Haddad.
Haddad also said that the ministry’s target is to attract tourists from Britain and the Arab Gulf states: \"The Gulf market is very promising, and it is also very important as the Gulf tourists are socially and culturally close to the Moroccans. They also prefer to extend their visit for a relatively long time which might reach two weeks.\"
The ministry is expecting 200,000 Gulf tourists within the next few years. The minister also revealed his plan to attract over one million British tourists every year. To achieve this goal, Haddad will organise communication campaigns: \"These campaigns will also be directed at opinion leaders in Britain and industry professionals to inform them about the various tourist attractions in Morocco.\"  
Haddad explained that they will highlight \"the specifics of Morocco\'s unique and exceptional destinations,\" while insisting on the advantages, in particular its geographical proximity to the UK (less than three hours by air), its cultural heritage and civilisation.
 He added that his ministry is in the process of signing new contracts with tour operators in the UK, in order to deepen the bonds of partnership and increase the flow of British tourists to Morocco.
 The official also highlighted the efforts made by his ministry to encourage the airlines companies to increase the frequency of their flights to Morocco, especially to popular destinations like Aghadir and Marrakech.