Forbes magazine recognises the CEO of the Morocco Tourism Board as one of the world's leaders in tourism
Morocco, like many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, has pursued various strategies to revive its tourism sector in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. For this reason, Forbes Middle East magazine has recognised the work of the Moroccan Tourism Board (ONMT) and its director, Adel El Fakir, placing it in 18th place among the Top 100 leaders in the travel and tourism industry. According to the magazine, Morocco received 11 million tourists in 2022, which it considers to be a merit of the commercial and marketing programmes developed by the Office with tour operators and airlines from around the world.
The strategy put forward by the Alawite kingdom stems from a study of international markets, the results of which showed that Morocco has a notoriety of 89%, of which only 41% plan to visit and only 19% actually do so. To improve these figures and attract new tourists, the ONMT has based its action on three specific brands: "Tourism in Action", in order to attract commercial transactions between companies; the "Ntla9awbladna" aimed at national tourism; and the main one, "Morocco, land of light", a multimedia campaign to promote the country internationally.
This project launched in April 2022, following investments to revive the tourism sector in regional countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, consists of a promotional video broadcast in more than 20 countries in the main audiovisual media in Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa, and also publicised during an international tour by the president of the National Tourism Confederation and the director of the ONMT.
Light as an identifying mark in the campaign "aims to exalt the richness of the country, its diversity and its living and authentic culture," adds CEO Adel El Fakir. This natural wealth is a great tourist potential that is intended to reach the arrival of more than 17 million tourists in the coming years, placing the Alawite kingdom in the top 10 of the world's tourist destinations by 2026, generating around 12 million dollars and creating more than 200,000 jobs.
To achieve this goal, the marketing of this campaign has been based on the opening of new markets through the ONMT's partnership with the Royal Air Maroc airline and the promotion of national destinations in both regional and international sectors by bringing the Kingdom's image to all the airports served by the national airline. Moroccan tour operators have at their disposal a media library rich in images and videos along with the visitmorocco.com portal offering a wide variety of cultural, sporting and gastronomic activities. On the other hand, in air transport, new links have been secured to improve accessibility to Moroccan tourist attractions, promoting destinations through Emirates Airlines or EasyJet, after closing an agreement with the Kingdom's National Tourism Promotion Office in January 2023.