Tourist arrivals up 4.6% in first five months of 2019

The number of tourists visiting Morocco between January and May 2019 increased 4.6% to 3.5 million compared with the same period last year.

International tourist arrivals rose 1% while Moroccans living abroad visiting their homeland dropped 8%, the tourism ministry said in its latest statistics.

Analysts said that the number of foreign tourists and Moroccans living abroad will further increase in July and August, the peak season for the Mediterranean crossing.

Morocco expects the sea crossing of about 3 million Moroccans living in Europe and about 700,000 cars.

Tourism revenues besides remittances of Moroccans living abroad are one of the main sources of hard currency for Morocco.

Morocco’s international reserves stand at 239 billion dirhams covering about five months of imports.

Tourism represents about 8% of the Moroccan economy and employs 7% of the work force as the North African country is usually among the top three largest tourism markets in Africa.