Analysis of the Moroccan Tourism
Cluster
Tourism has long been an important sector for Morocco. As early as the beginning of the 20th
century,
Morocco was positioned as a tourism destination for the people of France. Today, the sector has been identified
by the Moroccan government as one of five priority sectors for the country to develop. Indeed, Morocco has
several natural advantages that position it well to compete in tourism. These advantages include a highly diverse
landscape including extensive mountain ranges, forests, and coastline extremely pleasant climate, and
widespread knowledge of French among the population, making Morocco a natural vacation destination for the residents of France.
Morocco‘s tourism sector has exhibited strong growth since the government of the new king
Mohammed VI reiterated its status as a strategic sector for the economy in the early 2000s. Indeed, between
2002 and 2007, the number of total tourist nights in Morocco grew at a rate of 6.0% compared to the world
average growth rate of 1.6%1
growth, which are evidenced by the fact that Egypt‘s total tourist nights grew by 20.6% over the same period,
nearly 3.5 times faster than Morocco‘s.
In this paper, we seek to diagnose the performance of the Moroccan tourism sector and put forth a series
of recommendations aimed towards improving the competitiveness of the sector. In particular, this paper is
divided into the following five sections. (1) a review of the overall economic performance of Morocco, (2) an
assessment of the overall business policy and environment within Morocco (3) an in-depth analysis of the
tourism cluster and (4) an analysis of the strategic issues facing Morocco‘s tourism cluster and policy
recommendations.
Euromonitor International, ?Travel and Tourism - Morocco.? January 2008.
Morocco’s Overall Economic Performance
Background
The Kingdom of Morocco is a nation of 37.8 million people located in the extreme north-west corner of
the African continent. Occupied by the Spanish and French from 1860 and 1912 respectively, the country
gained independence in 1956. A constitutional monarchy, Morocco is governed by King Muhammad VI since
he assumed the throne from his father in 1999. While Morocco has an elected bicameral parliament, significant
power is concentrated in the hands of the King and the Royal Court.
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