AFP, Rabat :
Morocco’s key tourism sector barely grew last year amid security challenges, but operators are hoping Chinese and Russian visitors will boost their fortunes in the coming years.
While political turmoil and jihadist attacks have battered the sector in Egypt and Tunisia, Morocco registered 10 million visitors last year, according to the Moroccan Tourism Observatory. That was a barely perceptible rise of 1.5 percent from 2015, it said.
But hoteliers in the narrow streets of the capital Rabat’s old city were cautiously positive.
“Last year was better than 2015. And the first two months of 2017 augured an even better year,” said Hanane, manager of a local guesthouse.
Tourists are easy to spot wandering through Rabat’s old city with its craft stalls, Andalusian-style houses and a 12th-century kasbah overlooking the Atlantic.
But while tourism revenues rose 3.4 percent to $6.3 billion (5.9 billion euros) in 2016, visitor arrivals to Morocco have fallen far short of an ambitious official target of 20 million per year by 2020.
