China and Morocco have decided to strengthen their air connection. Shanghai Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, will launch a new connection between Shanghai and Casablanca on January 19, while Royal Air Maroc (RAM) will resume the direct Casablanca-Beijing route the next day, January 20. Connections which will undoubtedly encourage the return of Chinese tourists to Morocco.
Morocco expects a massive arrival of Chinese tourists this year with the launch of these two lines to Casablanca. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, a record 180,000 Chinese tourists had visited the kingdom, compared to 170,000 visitors in 2018. With the closure of borders, this number dropped to 27,979 in 2022, before rising to 59,719 in 2023, relay Challengerecalling that Chinese tourists have set their sights on Morocco since the visa exemption in 2016, the result of the strengthening of Sino-Moroccan cooperation.
To read: China, the goose that lays the golden eggs of Moroccan tourism?
As part of this cooperation, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) recently signed 16 agreements with Chinese travel agencies in Beijing to guarantee a good occupancy rate. The Moroccan airline plans to serve Shanghai and Guangzhou and increase from three flights to seven per week to Beijing. Good news for economic operators and tourists in both countries.
Read: Tourism: Morocco sets course for China
With 100 million travelers spending more than $120 billion annually globally, China is the largest tourism market in terms of volume and revenue. In fact, it constitutes one of the priorities of the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT) which is working to attract the maximum number of tourists to the kingdom this year, i.e. an additional 2.5 million, in order to consolidate the position of leader of Morocco as a tourist destination in Africa with 15.9 million arrivals at the end of November 2024.
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