Tourism in Morocco

Tourism in Morocco is well developed, maintaining a strong tourist industry focused on the country's coast, culture, and history.

[1] Tourism is considered one of the main foreign exchange sources in Morocco and since 2013 it had the highest number of arrivals out of the countries in Africa.

[2] In 2024, according to the Ministry of Tourism, a record annual total of 17.4 million tourists visited Morocco, up 20% compared to 2023.

Morocco is relatively inexpensive because of the interesting dirham exchange rate compared to major currencies and the increase of hotel prices in neighborhood Spain.

The "Plan Azur", is a large-scale project initiated by King Mohammed VI, is meant to provide for creating six coastal resorts for holiday-home owners and tourists (five on the Atlantic coast and one on the Mediterranean), the Daily Telegraph noted.

The plan also includes other large-scale development projects such as upgrading regional airports to attract budget airlines, and building new train and road links.

Through these efforts the country achieved an 11% percent rise in tourism in the first five months of 2008 compared with the same period the previous year, it said, adding that French visitors topped the list with 927,000 followed by Spaniards (587,000) and Britons (141,000).

Morocco, which is close to Europe, has a mix of culture and the exotic that makes it popular with Europeans buying holiday homes.

[citation needed] The country's attractions can be divided into seven regions:[10] While Morocco was a French Protectorate (from 1912 to 1956) tourism was focused on urban areas such as the Mediterranean cities of Tangier and Casablanca.

Tangier attracted many writers, such as Edith Wharton, Jack Kerouac, Paul Bowles, and William S. Burroughs.

The modern tourist industry capitalizes on Morocco's ancient Roman and Islamic sites, and on its landscape and cultural history.

El Jadida, formerly called Mazagan by the Portuguese, was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, on the basis of its status as an "outstanding example of the interchange of influences between European and Moroccan cultures" and as an "early example of the realisation of the Renaissance ideals integrated with Portuguese construction technology".

Recent examples are April 2011 terrorist attacks in Marrakesh, the Murders of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland in Imlil December 2018.