Minister of Tourism, Handicrafts and Social and Solidarity Economy Fatim-Zahra Ammor chaired on Tuesday the Moroccan delegation at the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) 2023 in Berlin, which will take place from 7 to 9 March.
This prestigious participation in the ITB Berlin reinforces the efforts made by the Ministry and the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) to promote the Moroccan destination and improve its distribution to global professionals, said the Ministry in a statement.
It comes, moreover, to give a strong signal as to the willingness of Morocco to recapture the German market, the fourth largest issuing market in terms of tourist arrivals and one of the priority European markets for the development of tourism in the Kingdom, notes the same source.
Accompanied by the Secretary General of the Ministry, Mohammed Msellek, and the Director General of the ONMT, Adel El Fakir, Ammor "has adopted an offensive approach and has multiplied the meetings with the leading German tour operators, including, TUI Group, FTI Group and Schauinsland, in order to take stock of the current partnerships and explore new avenues of development," adds the statement.
In this context, several strategic partnerships were signed on the sidelines of ITB Berlin, including two memorandums of understanding with German giant TUI Group and German airline Condor to create several new weekly frequencies from Munich, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Hamburg to Agadir from October 2023.
The ITB Berlin was also an opportunity for the Minister to "promote Morocco as a destination to an influential world press, including the Euronews news channel."
With a view to strengthening tourism cooperation between Morocco and Germany, Ammor met Dieter Janecek, the German government's coordinator for maritime economy and tourism, and Jana Schimke, chairwoman of the Tourism Committee of the German Bundestag.
These two meetings made it possible to share the experiences of both countries in terms of the recovery of the sector after the pandemic and to confirm Morocco's willingness to strengthen tourism cooperation, particularly in terms of promoting Moroccan tourism products and investment opportunities in tourism for the benefit of German tourists and investors.
"After an exceptional year 2022 for Moroccan tourism, which recovered 116% of travel receipts in foreign currency and 84% of arrivals in 2019, the time has come to accelerate growth, especially in strategic outbound markets," the ministry said.
With more than 10,000 exhibitors from over 180 countries and 160,000 visitors, ITB Berlin is one of the most important B2B trade shows for the global tourism industry. It brings together all levels of the global travel value chain and offers industry players the opportunity to meet and explore key opportunities for cooperation.
