Morocco: turning a tourism crisis into an opportunity

Morocco's tourism industry was hit hard last year by the uprising in the Middle East, the bombing in the city of Marrakech and the EuroZone crisis, but the country, whose economy depends heavily on tourism, still saw a small rise in visitor numbers. Nadejda Popova, travel and tourism analyst at Euromonitor International, investigates.

Marginal Growth in Arrivals in 2011

Morocco avoided violent social turmoil during the 2011 Arab Spring which saw protests across the Arab world and the overthrow of governments in Tunisia and Egypt. The economy is largely driven by domestic demand, a characteristic which helped Morocco avoid the worst of the global recession.

In 2011, the total number of tourist arrivals in terms of number of trips reached 9.3million, equating to a marginal rise of 0.3% on 2010. Morocco’s top three source markets for tourism in 2011 continued to be France, Spain and Germany.

Source: TravelMole.com