Tourist arrivals in Morocco, in January registered an increase of 11% compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Tourism and the National Tourism Observatory.
Some 409,146 tourists visited the North African kingdom during this period with the French topping the list with 134,875 tourists, followed by the Spaniards (105,994), the British (22,039), the Italians (20,000), the Belgians (18,724), the Germans (15,406) and the Dutch (12,509).
These figures also show that guest nights in classified hotels posted a 5% decrease, reaching some 1 million bed nights, against 1.14 million nights last year.
This decrease was offset slightly by a 17% increase in guest nights spent by local tourists, which reached some 232,456 guest nights in January.
Except for the city of Marrakesh and Agadir, which posted a 12% and 10% lower, respectively, all other tourist destinations receiving more tourists. Rabat has exceeded the list with 12%, followed by Casablanca and Fez (center) (+5% respectively) and Tangiers (+2%).
Room occupancy rate declined by 4 percentage points, to 38%, compared with 42% for the same period in 2007.
Travel revenues reached about 566 million dollars in January to 642 million dollars in the same period last year, that is, at 11.8% decrease.
Morocco has developed an ambitious strategy known as "Vision 2010", aimed to attract 10 million tourists by 2010. The strategy provides for the creation of 160000 beds, bringing the national capacity to 230000 beds. It also aims to create some 600,000 new jobs.
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