El turismo marroquí pierde hasta 18.000 millones de dirhams en los siete primeros meses del año

Losses in the tourism sector as a result of the coronavirus health crisis reached 18.3 billion dirhams in the first seven months of 2020, a 44.1 per cent decrease in revenue, according to Morocco's Directorate of Financial Studies and Forecasts. 

Almost confined populations, paralysed hotels...for the tourism industry, the blow dealt by this COVID-19 crisis is harsh and unprecedented. Only in the month of July, the decrease of these incomes was 90.1%, indicated a Moroccan organism in an economic report published this Tuesday and that the Moroccan newspaper L'Opinion reports. Tourist arrivals and overnight stays in hotels had fallen by 63.5% and 59.1% respectively by the end of June 2020.

With the aim of containing the spread of the coronavirus, on 3 August last a document was signed with 21 measures, covering the period between 2020 and 2022, to recover the volume of tourists and income prior to the crisis. Public and private agents are working on a future recovery of the sector, once infections have been contained. The state has committed to do everything possible to reach a global agreement on taxation with the sector and has pledged an amnesty on the Tourism Promotion Tax by 2020. 

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has noted that up to 115 destinations, 53% of all destinations in the world, have relaxed travel restrictions. Of these, two have lifted all restrictions while 113 maintain some. 

Cases of COVID-19 in Morocco already exceed 100,000 infections this Sunday, after a sharp increase in daily infections in recent weeks. In recent hours, the country has recorded 1,927 new cases, bringing the total to 101,743 infections, according to figures published by the Ministry of Health in a statement.

The figures for the last month have rocketed, with more than half of the cases recorded since August. Since 20 August, the number of new infections has risen to 54,105. Since the start of the de-escalation in mid-July, the cases have not stopped rising and from the thousand new cases a day in August, they rose to two thousand in September.

The Moroccan health minister, Khaled Ait Taleb, announced during an appearance before a parliamentary committee that 60 percent of the cases since the beginning of the pandemic in Morocco in March had been recorded as from August. "The situation is worrying but controllable. It has not reached a chaotic level that puts pressure on our capacities and our national health system," said the Health Minister, who explained that the country performs 25,000 PCR tests daily and has 13,400 beds for COVID-19 cases distributed in all the country's hospitals.

In the first week of September, Casablanca, the most populated city and economic capital of the country, saw the Government of Morocco close all access to the city for fourteen days after the exponential increase in infections. In a statement, the Executive detailed the restrictions that were taken in the city, which included a night curfew between 10pm and 5am. In addition, the time limit for shops and bars was limited.