Tourism Management Assignment PDF

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Tour
ism
Manage
ment

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Analyse the evolution of the tourism industry and its stakeholders throughout the last 5 years in
Morocco with a focus on future challenges.......................................................................................4
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
During the last few years, Morocco has become one of the most sought-after tourist
destinations of the world. The following report aims at analysing the evolution of the tourism
industry in Morocco which was considered as one of the secondary factors in the economic
development of the nation but is playing a dominant role in the country’s economic
development in the current times. Under the reign of Mohammed VI, the government has
made major investment in this industry and therefore the tourism industry has become one of
the main factors for the economic growth of the nation. At present, Tourism plays an
important role in the economy of Morocco.
Morocco is slowly becoming one of the popular tourist destinations for the visitors. It offers
many type of tourist attractions for its visitors. For the tourists attracted towards seaside
activities, it is one of the favourite destinations as has almost 3000 km of coastline (Williams,
2018). The country also offers cultural activities and has a rich history of heritage sites. For
the tourists interested in discoveries and adventures, the mountains and deserts of Morocco
offer unique and rich experience. Economically also, tourism is one of the important
segments in the economy of Morocco and tourism in Morocco is the third leading sector.
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Analyse the evolution of the tourism industry and its stakeholders throughout the last 5
years in Morocco with a focus on future challenges.
For many regions across the world and even for the entire nations, the tourism industry has
become an important source of income. Tourism directly impacts the social, cultural,
educational as well as the economic sectors of the nation and that is the reason why tourism is
considered as one of the most dynamic and growth oriented industry (Mowforth & Munt,
2015). Tourism industry comprises of all the businesses that serve the needs of the tourists
while they visit different locations or destinations for different purposes. In this manner, it is
also considered to be great source of income as it generates large amount of revenues in the
form of payments in exchange for the goods and the services that are provided to the tourists
and hence contributes in the economic development of the nation. Tourism to a great extent
generates employment opportunities for the local people and for the other service sectors that
are being associated with the tourism industry and hospitality industry which comprises of
transport services, lodging, hotels, restaurants etc. (Mowforth & Munt, 2015)
For Morocco. Tourism has been an important sector since long. Since the early beginning of
the 20th century, Morocco is considered as an important tourist destination especially for the
people of France. The government of Morocco has identified tourism as one of the most top
priority sectors in the list of development as it contributes significantly in the nation’s
economy. Also, the country enjoys several natural advantages which makes it a positioned
tourist destination. These natural advantages of Morocco includes highly diverse landscape,
vast coastline, extensive mountain ranges, pleasant climate and more than that good
knowledge of French language among the local mass that makes it one of the most favourite
destinations for the French tourists (Oxford Business Group, 2015).
For the sustainable tourism development of Morocco, the role of the stakeholders is of great
importance. The role of the national government of Morocco in the development of the
tourism sector is of great importance. The evolution of the tourism in Morocco is the result of
the effective planning as well as implementation of the tourism policies by the government of
Morocco. The government of Morocco has developed as well as maintained sound
infrastructure and at the same time ensure the safety of its tourists (Lowry, 2016). The local
governments of the regions also play an important role in the development of tourism in
Morocco. It is the local government and local councils that promote the local tourist
attractions as well as manage the negative impacts of the tourism. The role of the other
stakeholders such as other businesses and enterprises is also critical in the tourism
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development. This includes transport sector, accommodation sector that provides hotels,
lodge, food and drink etc. in order to meet the needs of the tourists. Travelling to destinations
cannot be think about in the absence of these businesses. Other than this, the travellers as well
as the local population are among the major stakeholders in the tourism sector. Local people
with their actions and services add value to the value of the tourist destination.
The tourism sector of Morocco has grown faster than the global tourism sector in the last five
years. Keeping this in mind, the government of Morocco has undertaken several measures in
order to support is Vision 2010 and Vision 2020 (Lowry, 2016). The government of Morocco
has been making huge investments in the transportation sector, luxury hotels as well as the
safety of the tourists in order to make Morocco one of the favourite as well as the budget
tourist destination for the people across the globe.
Morocco is considered as a highly stable nation. Despite the terrorist attack in Casablanca in
the year 2003, the country has remained on the top list for its tourists and has maintained its
stability. The nation has enjoyed considerable growth in the tourism sector which has
contributed to the economic development of the nation as well. After a few continuous years
of flat growth, the country experienced a significant growth with the 7.2 percent increment in
the tourist arrivals in the year 2013 (Oxford Business Group, 2017). The country has also
enforced several security apparatus in order to prevent the occurrence of the terrorist attacks.
As a result, Morocco has been ranked first is North Africa by the World Bank on the basis of
political stability as well as the absence of terrorism.
Other than political stability, the nation also offers latest and modern infrastructure to its
tourists. The government of Morocco has invested significantly in the development of the
infrastructure so as to encourage the development of the tourism sector in Morocco. As a
result, Morocco today is linked by 1800 km of highway and offers latest as well as advanced
telecommunication services. The country has 15 international airports as well as is the host of
one of the biggest ports (Guerraoui, 2017). All this together have attracted the attention of the
foreign investors into the tourism sector of Morocco. As a result, Morocco’s tourism reported
14.8% of FDIs. Out of this, almost 50% of the foreign investments came from France, Saudi
Arabia, USA, Kuwait as well as UAE. Other than this, Accor Group, a French company
invested significantly on hotels in Morocco and is again planning to invest a whopping
amount in the coming few years.
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In order to encourage the development of the tourism sector in Morocco, the government of
Morocco has signed the open sky agreement with the European Union in the year 2006. Since
then, the country has experienced a significant growth in its air traffic. As a result of this
agreement, the country has experienced the inflow of low cost carrier flights which has also
contributed in the growth of the tourism sector in Morocco. In the year 2013, the lowest
carrier flight of EU i.e. Ryanair added its new aircraft in the airports of Morocco with the
plan of delivering up to 2.5 million tourists every year (Saga, 2018).
Also, the government of Morocco has implemented Vision 2020 in order to boost the tourism
sector of Morocco. Under the Vision 2020, the government plans to double the size of its
tourism sector and to reach almost 20 million passengers every year (Saga, 2018). With this
vision, the government of Morocco plans to make country one of the top tourist destination in
the whole world.
For the country’s economy, tourism has long been a strong pillar. For the developing
countries like Morocco, Tourism lays a significant impact on the economic development of
the nation. It provides several benefits such as creating job opportunities, income generation
as well as the image creation of the nation etc. For Morocco, tourism has played an important
role in the economic growth of the nation. It contributes to almost 8.1 % to country’s GDP
and at the same time accounts for almost 7.1 % of the total employment that was reported in
the year 2016 (Saga, 2018). This is the reason why tourism holds an important place in the
country’s economy. It was observed that the total of 819,000 jobs of total were created by
tourism in the year 2016.
In the year 2018, again the tourism contributed to 8.1% of the nation’s total GDP. This figure
grows to almost 15% as tourism indirectly contributes to other sectors and businesses such as
transport, food, accommodation etc. The tourism sector is estimated to employ more than 2.5
million people directly or indirectly which accounts for almost 25 % of the total workforce of
the country (Oxford Business Group, 2017). Other than this, tourism is considered as the
growth accelerator by the government of Morocco as it provides job opportunities to the local
people and at the same time helps in reducing income inequalities. It improves the standard of
living of people, increase investments, increase income generation, increases revenues
generated through tax and in this manner tourism is estimated to improve the overall national
as well as local economy.
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In the year 2018, approximately 12.3 million of tourists visited Morocco which is estimated
to be 8% more than the number of tourists that arrived in the previous year. Out of this, total
of 11.3 million of tourists visited Morocco during the first 11 months (Fernando, 2017). Thus
the average rate of tourists arriving in the country was observed to be around 1 million
tourists every month. From the year 2005-2018, the country observed the annual growth of
approximately 6% in the number of tourist arrival which is far more than the growth rate of
the global tourism (World Finance, 2019).
After the government of Morocco gave the relaxation on the visa requirements, Morocco
experienced a significant growth in the arrival of the Chinese tourists. The number of tourist
arrivals rose from merely 10,000 in 2015 to almost crossing 180000 in the year 2019
(Trading Economics, 2020). Among the top Moroccan tourist destinations, Marrakech
recorded the 2.4 million tourist arrivals from January to November in the year 2018. Another
top destination, Agadir recorded approximately 1. 038,760 tourists from January to
November in the year 2018 which is almost 13% higher than the previous year recordings
(Trading Economics, 2020). In the similar manner, Essaouira also reported an increment of
15% in the number of tourist arrivals in the first 11 months of the year 2018 (Trading
Economics, 2020). This has become possible due to the safety measures taken by the
Moroccan government which makes Morocco safer than most of the other European
countries and hence ensures low safety risks and higher safety assurance.
Tourism has been one of the critical factors and the driving force for the Morocco’s GDP
growth over the years. In the year 2017, tourism in total generated almost 70 billion MAD.
Therefore, despite slow-down in the country’s GDP in the year 2018, tourism continued to
support the economic development of the nation (Mordor Intelligence, 2019). The number of
tourists arriving Morocco increased mainly from the markets such as Germany, Netherlands,
France, Spain, United States and Italy. Moreover, records also show the increased number of
tourist arrivals from countries like Japan and Brazil.
In the year 2019, the number of tourists visiting Morocco increased by 5.2 % and estimated to
be around 13 million tourists. The main increment was reported in the tourists from France
and Spain. The major tourist destinations of Morocco such as Marrakech as well as Agadir
reported an increment of almost 6% and 3.5 % respectively (Guerraoui, 2017).
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Figure Showing the increment in the number of tourist arrivals
Source: https://thearabweekly.com/morocco-attracts-record-number-tourists-2017
The natural endowments of Morocco serve as the major demand factor for the growth of the
tourism in Morocco. Morocco enjoys large diversity of beautiful landscapes. The scenic
attraction of its Atlas mountain which is as high as 2000 meters (Williams, 2018). Other
than this, the beautiful forests of Rif and its Sahara deserts serves as the major tourist
attraction. Morocco also serves as the perfect tourist destination for those looking for
family coastal tourism due to its scenic and mesmerising Mediterranean coasts. The tourists
looking for adventure and water sports activities also prefer to visit the coasts of Morocco.
The climate of the Morocco is pleasant and suitable for the tourist activities (Williams,
2018). The average sun hours in a day are 8 hours and the coastal regions of Agadir have
more than 300 days per year of sun. The great and diverse flora and fauna serves as the
major tourist attraction. The tourists also prefer to visit Morocco for its antelopes,
flamingos as well as golden eagles. Other than this, the historical assets of the country also
attracts tourists.
Morocco’s infrastructure such as well-developed roads and transport also makes it a
favourite tourist destination among the visitors. This is the reason why Morocco has been
the favourite spot for many of the Hollywood major motion pictures that have been shoot in
the country and have enhanced the image of the Morocco as a tourist destination among the
mass tourists (Mordor Intelligence, 2019). Other than this, its proximity to EU also serves as
an added advantage. However, the language skills as well as the other training skills limits
the growth of the tourism sector in Morocco. The majority of the Moroccan population
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speaks French and as a result major fraction of the foreign tourists are from France and
Spain. The population of Morocco hardly have the knowledge of English language and this
is the reason why the country gets only 10% of the tourists from English nations
(Guerraoui, 2017).
The tourism sector of Morocco are facing few challenges that must be met by the
government of the country in order to ensure the economic development of the nation as
well as the growth of the tourism in the country. The first major challenge is to lower the
prices of its market as it has been estimated that the tourism sector of the Morocco will
soon be priced out of the market due to its relatively high prices (Infomineo, 2015). There
are mainly two key drivers that are responsible for the high prices. These are the high
exchange rate of the country while second is the low wage level of the country’s labour.
Therefore, the government needs to handle this challenge in order to ensure the
development of the tourism sector. Hence, the government of Morocco, instead of focusing
on devaluing the exchange rates should focus on providing competitive prices through
increased labour productivity. This can be achieved by making hard efforts in order to
improve the overall education as well as training of the employees belonging to the tourism
sector. The government and the tourism companies and enterprises should together offer
vocational training for its employees. Also, there is a need for making more investments in
the ICT as well as physical infrastructure so as to increase the overall productivity of the
tourism sector (Fernando, 2017).
The second challenge that the tourism sector of Morocco needs to handle is the need to
develop the tourism packages that will increase the demand for the Morocco’s destinations
and products. There are various tourist destinations in Morocco that have not been
developed yet and by developing these niches, the Moroccan tourism can experience
significant growth and increment (Infomineo, 2015). Therefore, it is required that the
government of Morocco implements several policies in order to promote these niche
markets. In order to make these alternate niches visible, the government should focus more
on building sound infrastructure in these areas. At the same time, the government should
ensure that the quality of the local tourism remains unaffected and for this strict guidelines
should be developed and enforced.
Other than these, the other major challenge that needs to be focused upon is the expansion
of the tourism consumer base beyond Europe and France so as to ensure its continuous
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development (Infomineo, 2015). Therefore, in order to increase the diversity in the tourism
sector, the government of Morocco needs to promote English language usage and training
in the country’s local education system so as to enable its people to gain the knowledge of
the English language. Also, the marketing campaigns must be developed and focused on
countries outside of Europe region.
The fourth major challenge that must be focused upon by Moroccan government is to
decrease the terrorism threat in order to ensure the long sustainability of the tourism sector.
Around 41 foreign tourists are estimated to be killed in the year 2003 terrorist attacks in
Casablanca (Infomineo, 2015). Also, Morocco has experienced few suicide bombings
recently which has increased the fear of terrorism among the foreign visitors. Therefore,
government needs to enforce more strict policies in order to reduce the threat of terrorism.
This can be achieved by enforcing strict anti-terrorism regulations and policies.
The fifth important challenge that is threatening the growth of the tourism sector in
Morocco is the degradation of the natural resources of the country, which has become the
matter of concern and has a major impact on the long term sustainability of the tourism
sector in Morocco (Infomineo, 2015). The government of Morocco needs to enforce more
strict regulations in relation with the environmental protection in order to prevent this
degradation of the natural resources.
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Conclusion
To conclude, Tourism is one of the most critical factors in the growth of the economy of
Morocco. However, the success of this success depends to a large extent on the extent of
the security offered by the nation and the political stability of the country. Today, tourism
in Morocco has become the third largest sector. Also, it is one of the largest sectors of
Morocco that offers employment opportunities for the local people of the country. Also,
one of the major contributors in the revenue generated from the foreign investments is also
tourism that accounts for almost 10% of the total foreign direct investments. However, the
growth of the tourism sector has shown slow decline in the year 2018 which has become a
major challenge for the government of Morocco. Therefore the government of Morocco
needs to diversify the competitive environment by improving the niche areas, reinforce
education and ensure strict safety regulation so as to get the overall success in the growth of
the tourism sector in Morocco.
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References
Fernando, A. G., 2017. Analysis of tourism policy in a developing country: the case of Morocco..
Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, pp. 1-21.
Guerraoui, S., 2017. Morocco attracts record number of tourists in 2017. [Online]
Available at: https://thearabweekly.com/morocco-attracts-record-number-tourists-2017
[Accessed 2020].
Infomineo, 2015. Tourism in Morocco: The Challenges of a Promising Sector. [Online]
Available at: https://infomineo.com/tourism-in-morocco-the-challenges-of-a-promising-sector/
[Accessed 2020].
Lowry, L. L., 2016. The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism. s.l.:Sage Publications.
Mordor Intelligence, 2019. MOROCCO TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY (2020 - 2025). [Online]
Available at: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/morocco-tourism-and-hotel-
industry
[Accessed 2020].
Mowforth, M. & Munt, I., 2015. Tourism and Sustainability: Development, globalisation and new
tourism in the Third World. s.l.:Routledge.
Oxford Business Group, 2015. The Report: Morocco 2015. s.l.:Oxford Business Group.
Oxford Business Group, 2017. Strong performance of Moroccan tourism industry expected to
continue in 2018. [Online]
Available at: https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/overview/turning-tide-sector-expected-continue-its-
recovery-back-strong-performance-2017
[Accessed 2020].
Saga, A. B., 2018. Tourism, a Driving Force for Morocco’s GDP Growth: Report. [Online]
Available at: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/07/250908/tourism-gdp-growth-bmi/
[Accessed 2020].
Trading Economics, 2020. Morocco Tourist Arrivals. [Online]
Available at: https://tradingeconomics.com/morocco/tourist-arrivals
[Accessed 2020].
Williams, S., 2018. 10 Reasons Why You Should Visit Morocco. [Online]
Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/africa/morocco/articles/10-reasons-why-you-should-visit-
morocco/
[Accessed 2020].
World Finance, 2019. Inspiring a tourism revolution in Morocco. [Online]
Available at: https://www.worldfinance.com/wealth-management/inspiring-a-tourism-revolution-in-
morocco
[Accessed 2020].
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