Morocco to issue tourist visas to Chinese individuals

Chinese tourists will be able to travel individually to Morocco by direct flight next year, according to a Moroccan senior official.

Larson Haddad, tourism minister of Morocco, announced at the first China-Morocco Economic Forum that plans to issue tourist visas to Chinese individual visitors and launch direct flights between China and Morocco are underway.

Chinese tourists can now visit Morocco by joining a tour group, and only paper visa applications are accepted. Minister Haddad said that Morocco and China have started negotiations on the visa issue, and individual tourist visas are expected to be issued to Chinese visitors in 2015. In addition, more visa agencies will be established and electronic visa applications will be accepted to expedite visa approval.

According to Larson, Royal Air Maroc is planning to launch direct flights between China and Morocco, shortening flight times to five or six hours.

Morocco also plans to develop tourism products jointly with other European countries and Gulf countries. “Chinese tourists heading for Morocco can stop by Spain, France, Turkey, Tunisia and the UAE and appreciate the beauty of those countries,” Haddad said. The current flights from China to Morocco transfer at Paris or Dubai, which makes the package tour products tempting.

“We have given significant attention to China,” Haddad said. “The country is growing into an enormous emerging tourism market with an expanding middle class, and we must make a place in the market through long-term efforts,” he said. For the moment, only thousands of Chinese visit Morocco annually. Haddad expects the number to increase to hundreds of thousands annually by 2020.

Beijing and Shanghai will be the focus for Moroccan travel agencies. “The Chinese market is too big, and we cannot accomplish this in one action. So, the middle class in the two cities will be our target groups for tourism promotion in the near future,” Haddad said.

Morocco plans to attract 18 million to 20 million inbound travelers by 2020, which will rank it among the top 20 tourism destinations in the world. “According to the 2020 Morocco tourism development strategy, the tourism industry will become a pillar industry of our country’s economic development, which will not only bring diversity and new energy to the Moroccan economy, but also be environmentally friendly and conducive to sustainable development,” Haddad said.

In 2013, Morocco received 10 million tourists, up 6 percent from last year, of which 5.3 million were from overseas. France, Spain and Britain were the top three sources of tourists.

The Kingdom of Morocco, a small monarchy in Northwest Africa, sits along the Atlantic Ocean. It has been named one of “The Top Ten Tourist Destinations in 2015” by Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide publisher in the world. Marrakech, an ancient city of Morocco, has been named “The Best Golf Destination of 2015 in African, Gulf and Indian Ocean Countries”.