Aerolínea marroquí lanza doce nuevas rutas hacia seis países europeos 

The Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) is launching from next week and during the next five months thirteen new routes to as many destinations in several European countries.  

The operation, carried out in cooperation with the Moroccan National Tourist Office, aims to support tourism in Morocco after a year of serious crisis in a sector that accounts for 7% of the country's GDP, is vital for providing foreign currency and provides direct and indirect jobs for 2.5 million people.  

The city that will see its air traffic increase the most is Marrakech, from which new routes will depart to London (4 frequencies per week, Madrid, Brussels, Milan (3 frequencies), Lyon, Bordeaux and Marseilles (2 frequencies), in addition to strengthening connections with Paris to ten per week.  

From the Atlantic city of Agadir there will be new routes to London, Brussels, Manchester and Lyon, with two flights a week in each case.  

Finally, the airline will also open a new twice-weekly route between Paris and Dakhla in Western Sahara, where tourism linked to maritime sports such as surfing and kite-surfing has been growing in recent years.  

It remains to be seen how much these lines will contribute to relaunching tourism, since the partial and conditional opening of the borders has not managed to attract large numbers of tourists and many hotels and restaurants have chosen to remain closed.  

The obligation to take a PCR test in order to enter Morocco, plus a hotel reservation or a business invitation that justifies the stay, is putting a brake on tourism, which before the coronavirus pandemic was close to thirteen million visitors a year.