Morocco, at present, plays a relatively small part in the Mediterranean tourist market, but new measures are planning to boost tourist visitors, bringing this number up to ten million tourists by 2010.

The tourism sector generates approximately 600,000 jobs directly and at least as many indirectly. Moroccan tourism is still mainly geared towards Europe and especially France. Whilst most of the past promotion was concentrated on the European market there are some considerable efforts underway in order to widen this mix of nationalities, targeting new areas like the Middle East which have great growth potential.

The government has identified several areas of opportunity: among them the coastal development for resorts and the revitalisation of cities such as Casablanca, the country’s economic capital. Other major initiatives include the agreement of Open Sky, signed and launched in March 2006, the development of a certain number of cultural festivals across the country, in order to promote new areas of the country. These measures were supported by the creation of new entities such as the CRI (Centre Régional d’Investissement) and CRT (Conseil Régional du Tourisme) which have for sole objective to help focus on the needs of specific localities.

Casablanca is located to the west of Morocco and has a population of approximately 5 million.  Although the city is not the capital, it represents the economic heart of Morocco.  Casablanca’s economy has steadily become more dynamic, appealing to a range of national and international industries who have located offices in the city.  In addition Casablanca has a very fine historical city centre (medina) combined with the sea which is becoming increasingly attractive to tourists.