Tourism: the outlines of the recovery!

What will become of tourism after the Covid-19 crisis? This was the question around which the CCSM’s third virtual meeting was organised. On 2 October, around 80 people followed the presentations by Nadia Fettah Alaoui, Minister of Tourism, Handicrafts, Air Transport and the Social Economy, Guillaume Scheurer, Ambassador of Switzerland to Morocco, and Didirer Krumm, Morocco Director of Swisscontact. The meeting also featured contributions from our President and Managing Director of Swissport Maroc, Christophe de Figueiredo, and Amr Kallini, General Manager of the Mövenpick Hotel Casablanca.

The 2020-2022 programme contract

As guest of honour, Nadia Fettah Alaoui, Minister of Tourism, Handicrafts, Air Transport and the Social Economy, quickly got to the heart of the matter by discussing the programme contract signed last August. According to the Minister, “tourism occupies an important place in the Moroccan economy. It involves considerable capital investment, generates substantial revenue and creates significant employment. The recovery of tourism activity in Morocco requires three essential elements: mobility, confidence and competitiveness. This involves in particular the introduction of health protocols in hotel establishments across the Kingdom and the promotion of the ‘Morocco’ product. With this in mind, and in line with the Royal guidelines, a programme contract has been signed by the sector’s professionals to support and revive tourism”.

Covering the period 2020-2022, the programme contract also aims to give a strong boost to the sector and to inject new momentum to support its recovery and transformation. “The programme contract is built around three major objectives: preserving the economic fabric and employment, accelerating the restart phase and laying the foundations for a sustainable transformation of the sector. It will also make it possible to position Morocco as a destination in the post-Covid-19 era, by adapting to new market realities, anticipating changes in tourists’ consumption patterns and taking advantage of the opportunities offered in a context marked by the current health crisis”, said the Minister.

A Morocco-Switzerland agreement on sustainable tourism

Morocco and Switzerland maintain friendly and stable bilateral relations. According to Guillaume Scheurer, Ambassador of Switzerland to Morocco, “the partnership between the two countries is intensifying in the economic field, particularly in the tourism sector. In 2019, Morocco was Switzerland’s 7^th largest trading partner in Africa and it remains a popular destination for Swiss tourists. As early as 1987, Switzerland committed itself to the need to reconcile the economic, social and environmental dimensions in its tourism policy, and later integrated sustainable development goals”.

This was confirmed by the signing last July of an agreement between Morocco and Switzerland to promote the development of sustainable tourism in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region. “Running over the period 2020-2024, this partnership aims to develop sustainable tourism with integrated value chains in order to reduce poverty, generate income opportunities, create new jobs and improve existing ones, particularly for women and young people. It also aims to strengthen the competitiveness and market access of certain sectors included in the tourism value chain”, explains Didirer Krumm, Morocco Director of Swisscontact.

Commendable efforts

The recovery of tourism activity will have to be achieved by building a degree of confidence and by strictly complying with hygiene and prevention protocols. For Amr Kallini, General Manager of the Mövenpick Hotel Casablanca, the answer to this constraint lies in the #All Safe project. Introduced by the Accor group in several hotels in Morocco and around the world, this label was developed in partnership with Bureau Veritas, a body specialising in certification. “Through this project, the focus has been on strengthening cleaning programmes through the use of new types of products, particularly in high-traffic, high-interaction common areas, and a complete review of the way rooms are made up. Not to mention basic health measures in all hotels”.

Operating in airport services, Swissport Maroc is going through a difficult period due to the Covid-19 health crisis. This has not prevented the company from keeping its entire workforce. “Despite a difficult economic situation and a decline in our activities, we were determined to maintain all jobs, but also to continue training our staff. The day activity resumes at all airports, our human capital will be motivated and ready to take on every challenge in order to continue delivering quality services”, says Christophe de Figueiredo, Managing Director of Swissport Maroc and President of the CCSM.

Morocco needs to unite all its forces to continue making the Kingdom the destination so coveted by tourists from all over the world, while ensuring their health and safety as well as that of the women and men who work in the sector.