North African country, Morocco is on course to diversify its tourism market after signing an agreement with a Chinese tour operator, C Trip. If everything goes as planned, the agreement could bring in 500,000 Chinese tourists annually into Morocco.
The agreement which was signed in Rabat by Adel El Fakir, head of Morocco’s tourism promotion office ONMT and James Liang , chairman of C Trip is aimed at showcasing Morocco’s attractions in Chinese advertising platforms.
The partnership is expected to set the seal on a relationship that began three years ago. In June 2016, Morocco announced a new visa policy for Chinese tourists. Chinese citizens can now obtain visas upon arrival in Morocco instead of having to get them in advance.
Since then, the number of Chinese visiting Morocco has increased drastically from less than 20,000 when the policy was announced to over 180,000 in 2018. While the change in figures has been impressive, the goal of the partnership is to attract as many as 500,000 Chinese tourists per year.
ONMT had also signed an agreement with the Confucius Center to train tourist guides to speak mandarin.
Culled from africabusinesscommunities.com