Marruecos: el Fondo Mohamed VI rescatará a las cadenas hoteleras en aprietos financieros
Aiming to revitalise public investment in the face of the economic crisis, Morocco's King Mohammed VI announced the creation of the fund in 2021 and then ordered its activation; an entity that is valued at $4.1bn. During this week, reliable sources revealed to Al-Arab that the Mohammed VI Investment Fund, the North African nation's sovereign wealth fund, is considering acquiring minority stakes in distressed local hotels and reopening them to revive activity in the industry in the near future. The plight of the troubled hotels that the fund seeks to save, with a combined capacity of more than 40,000 rooms, varies, as some of them were financially affected by the effects of the epidemic and forced to close.
In addition, the Fund wants to invest in the capital of small and medium-sized enterprises and lend money to companies engaged in highly profitable industries. In this way, Morocco, which has undertaken in recent years and continues to consolidate in its current and future directions, wants to be no less. The new plan that the Moroccan government intends to implement envisages doubling the capacity of air travel, expanding the dissemination and marketing of Moroccan tourism, especially in the Middle East, diversifying the cultural offer by trying to combine new technologies with the country's traditional activities, modernising hotels to optimise the service provided, and adding new accommodation options, such as bubble and submarine hotels, which are currently enjoying great popularity.
According to indicators reported by several national officials in charge of these strategic sectors, the Kingdom is on the verge of matching its performance before the COVID-19 crisis and is even doing better than during the pandemic period. The industry, considered one of the engines of the national economy, accounts for about 7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is important in providing foreign exchange to the country's economy, reaching a record of about $9 billion last year, and creates jobs, particularly for young people.
The state's initiative to help those working to promote tourism is a component of the recently approved tourism sector roadmap, which aims to increase the number of foreign visitors to the Alawite nation from 11 million, split between 5.1 million visitors and 5.9 million Moroccan residents abroad (MREs) returning to the Kingdom of Morocco, from a target of 12.9 million this year to a proposed 17.5 million by Rabat 2026. Most of the troubled hotels nominated to benefit from the fund's intervention are in Marrakech, the country's top tourist destination, according to data collected by Al-Arab from two sources at the National Tourism Federation and the Ministry of Tourism and cited by Bloomberg's Eastern Economy platform.
Most of the closed hotels in the city, such as Tropicana, Tishka, Tafilalet, Sahara Inn, Marrakech and Kenza, are four-star establishments, according to Mustafa Amlik, secretary general of the Marrakech Hotel Industry Association: "The number of closed hotels in the city exceeds 15". Amlik stressed that measures must be taken to address the city's current room supply problems, caused by the closure of numerous hotels, to take advantage of the tourism boom and turn it into a major driver of economic growth.
The estimated number of hotel beds in Marrakech exceeds 70,000, spread across 250 hotels and guesthouses, indicating that the city has a sizeable share of the industry that is believed to attract more foreign tourists. Because so many international meetings and seminars are held there each year, Marrakech becomes a very attractive tourist destination. With 14,000 tourists booked from all over the world, there is likely to be an increase in hotel demand when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) hold their annual meetings in the city in October the following year.
While some hotels may be able to solve their problems on their own, others are affected by the global health crisis and face problems such as tax and social security arrears or legal issues. Although the final list of nominated hotels has not yet been decided by the Fund and the Ministry of Tourism, Al-Arab has learned from reliable sources that Marrakech alone has more than ten privately owned hotels that are in financial trouble. They are expected to receive preference over other businesses in other cities given the city's importance to tourists. The fund will probably only make purchases if a business plan full of concessions is put in place.
Expanding on this, 60% of visitors to Agadir's two cities are from outside the country. The fund received an initial state budget contribution of $1.44 billion to finance large investment projects in partnership with the private sector. It currently plans to raise some $14 billion from the global market. By 2026, this new reactivation plan will generate annual foreign exchange earnings of $11.5 billion, according to officials, as well as more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs.