400 billion centimes, the volume of new investments in the hotel sector in Morocco
The Kingdom’s hotel sector attracted significant investments amounting to 4 billion dirhams during the first half of this year, an increase of 7% per year, according to official data from the Ministry of Tourism.
The government has supported a number of tourism programs as an economic engine that employs around 2.5 million Moroccans, and its contribution to supporting the Kingdom’s hard currency balance amounts to more than 100 billion centimes per year.
During the year 2023, 135 new hotel units were opened, with a total investment of around 8 billion dirhams, a figure that the government seeks to increase in the coming years, hoping that the need for new facilities will increase, especially after the Kingdom won the bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
– Number of hotel units in Morocco
The Kingdom of Morocco currently has about 4,742 classified hotel establishments, 471 of which were opened in the last four years, an increase of 8%, double that recorded in the previous period, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism. The government’s launch of several programs (Investment Charter, Go Tourism and Cap Hospitality) will help increase investment in this sector by the end of this year.
– A roadmap for the tourism sector worth 580 billion centimes
Morocco has adopted a new roadmap for the tourism sector for the period 2023 to 2026, with a budget of about 6.1 billion dirhams ($580 million). The Kingdom also welcomed about 7.4 million tourists in the first half of the year, an increase of 7.4 million. 14 percent compared to the same period in 2023, and the number of tourists reached a record level of about 14.5 million tourists last year.
Industry professionals hope to achieve a sharp increase in investment in the hotel sector, by at least 15 percent this year, thanks to the increase in airlines, the promotion of the Moroccan destination and the goal of increasing the number of tourists arriving from abroad to 26 million by the end of the decade requires strengthening the hotel offer.
– Hotel renovation
In addition to supporting the hotel offer, the Kingdom seeks to develop the tourist entertainment sector, as it launched this year the “GO Tourism” program aimed at encouraging the creation and development of 1,700 tourism companies with expected investments of 720 million dirhams.
The government also recently announced its intention to support the renovation of 25,000 hotel rooms through the “CAP Hospitality” program, for which it has allocated 4 billion dirhams. Imad Barqad, general manager of the Moroccan Governmental Company for Tourism Engineering, noted in an interview with Al-Sharq that “this program will give an impetus and encourage hotels, regardless of their classification, to renovate their rooms.”
The government program will grant loans, the entire interest of which will be borne by the State, to tourist accommodation companies with projects to rehabilitate their facilities, provided that this financing covers all investments ranging from 3 to 100 million dirhams, with a repayment period of up to 12 years.
