Morocco expects a large influx of Chinese tourists this year, thanks to the opening of new air connections. Shanghai Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, inaugurated a direct flight between Shanghai and Casablanca on January 19, followed the next day by the resumption of the Casablanca-Beijing line operated by Royal Air Maroc (RAM). These initiatives would greatly facilitate the return of Chinese visitors, whose interest in the kingdom has increased since the visa waiver in 2016.
Before the pandemic, Morocco had recorded a record 180,000 Chinese tourists in 2019, compared to 170,000 in 2018. With the closure of borders, this figure drastically fell to 27,979 in 2022, before climbing to 59,719 in 2023. The new airlines, associated with accumulated Sino-Moroccan cooperation efforts, augur a notable recovery.
To capitalize on this growth, Royal Air Maroc recently concluded 16 agreements in Beijing with Chinese travel agencies, thus ensuring an optimal occupancy rate. The company also aims to expand its network by serving Shanghai and Guangzhou, while increasing the frequency of weekly flights to Beijing, from three to seven rotations.
-China, with its 100 million travelers and its annual tourism spending exceeding $120 billion, constitutes a key market for Morocco. The Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT) is actively working to attract 2.5 million additional visitors in 2024, thus consolidating the kingdom’s position as the leading tourist destination in Africa, with 15.9 million arrivals recorded at the end of November last. A valuable opportunity to boost economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
Morocco
