Morocco, already Africa’s top tourism destination, is counting on a US$4bil (RM16.05bil) investment drive to increase hotel capacity by a fifth before it co-hosts the men’s football World Cup at the end of the decade.
The bid to add 25,000 hotel rooms represents “... one of the most significant expansions ever undertaken in the kingdom, both in terms of its scale and its pace,” said Imad Barrakad, head of the Moroccan tourism development agency SMIT.
Three quarters of the 700 planned projects, which span the North African nation’s major cities, will be funded by Moroccan investors, Barrakad said in an emailed response to questions. International brands will manage at least 15% of the new capacity, he added.
Morocco was the continent’s top tourist draw for a second consecutive year in 2025, recording almost 20 million visitors and generating about US$14.8bil (RM59.38bil) in receipts. The country – home to historic cities such as Marrakesh, Fez and Tangier – is due for a major international tourism boost when it hosts the FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal in 2030. It has been heavily investing in infrastructure.
The Iran-United States/Israel conflict has had no direct impact on tourism investment plans underway in Morocco, which is thousands of miles from the Persian Gulf, Barrakad said. The sector employs about 900,000 people in the country of 37 million, accounting for 9% of gross domestic product.
According to data from aviation insights firm Cirium, the country saw just 162 cancelled flights between Feb 25 and March 25.
Airports in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar help bring hundreds of thousands of tourists to Morocco from the Gulf Arab region and Asia. About 85% of the kingdom’s visitors last year were from Europe and North America.
As an energy importer, Morocco is facing at least short-term pain from the spike in global oil and gas prices. Tourism and fertiliser exports have typically been the kingdom’s main shock absorbers to deal with such increases. The International Monetary Fund sees the economy growing 4.4% this year versus 4.9% in 2025.
Barrakad acknowledged the knock-on effects of the conflict might mean higher construction and operating costs, a slowdown in capital inflows or prompt investors to favour other destinations.
He described the country as shifting its tourism development focus from “a volume-based approach to one of quality and impact.”
“Morocco is less concerned with convincing everyone and more focused on attracting the right investors, for the right projects, with a long-term vision,” Barrakad said. – Bloomberg
