Morocco’s tourism revenues near pre-pandemic levels in April

Morocco reported a 124% rise in tourism receipts to 14.62 billion dirhams ($1.5 bln) up to April this year, getting closer to pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the exchange office said.

Analysts say that the receipts could have been higher had it not been for Ramadan which coincided with April this year.

Morocco is restoring air routes with key tourism emitting markets and is expecting to surpass 2019 this year amid a recovery of the hospitality industry.

The recovery of tourism sector augurs well for foreign exchange reserves amid a higher import bill that led to deepening of the trade deficit to 43.6% up to April this year, or $9 bln.

Energy imports more than doubled to $4.3 billion dirhams while food imports, soil nutrients and semi-finished products deepened the trade gap.

Exports of phosphates, however, topped all Moroccan sales with $3.6 billion, followed by exports of the car industry sector with $3.2 billion.