Morocco on an upswing

Morocco and India are set to sign an agreement in the field of air transport to encourage more travellers to visit both the countries.

Anupriya Bishnoi

Morocco, in an effort to double its tourist footfalls from India by 2019, has set up a Moroccan National Tourist Office in Delhi as the first step towards promoting Morocco as a desirable destination for Indians. His Excellency Mohammed Sajid, Minister of Tourism, Air Transport, Handicraft and Social Economy, Kingdom of Morocco, talked about his strategies to boost the number of tourists from India. He informed, “In our recent meeting with K J Alphons, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, Government of India, we will be signing an MoU to promote tourism in both the countries as they share a lot of similarities in terms of heritage, civilisation, etc. We will also be signing an agreement in the field of air transport with the Civil Aviation. In this trip to India, we have with us the chief of our national air transport Royal Air Maroc. We will be having discussions with Air India and other local carriers to facilitate flights between both the countries.”

Our tourist office in Delhi will oversee Morocco promotions in India and help us in planning strategic promotional and awareness programmes to tap Indian tourism

Moroccan-Indian relations are getting stronger as Morocco prepares to implement several measures to welcome more of Indian tourists in 2019. With 7 per cent GDP global growth rate, rising personal income levels and changing lifestyles and a huge middle class with the availability of low-cost airfares and diverse travel packages, India is rapidly becoming one of the fastest growing outbound travel markets in the world. Indian tourists are among the world’s highest-spending globetrotters.

Sajid further stated, “We have opened our Tourist Office in Delhi, which will oversee Morocco promotions in India. This office will help us in planning various strategic promotional and awareness programmes to tap the robust tourism sector in India. Morocco is keen to enhance its co-operation with India in the tourism sector, in harmony with its new orientation towards emerging as a preferred destination outside the traditional Asian tourist market.”

The delegation also met the Minister of Foreign Affairs for discussing visa problems and how relaxed norms like that of e-visa can help boost the tourism.

Strengthening tourism ties

• With the signing of the MoU between ITDC and Government of Kingdom of Morocco, both the organisations will be able to share engineering and tourism products development expertise, new trends and technology in tourism products and innovative tourism product development, apart from sharing of database of potential Indian and Moroccan investors in the tourism sector
• The organisations will also collaborate to promote tourism investment opportunities through participation in tourism investment events, economic missions and co-organisation of promotional investment events which are of mutual benefit