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Mr Boussaid: the British market plays a very strategic role in the Moroccan tourist policy
in the region
On Thursday, September 25, 2008 , Mr Mohamed Boussaid, the Minister of Tourism and Handicraft, received Mr Timothy Morris, the British Ambassador to Morocco .
This meeting has been the opportunity to go over the main points in the Moroccan-British relationships, more particularly those related to tourism.
Mr Boussaid has underlined that “the British market plays a very strategic role in the Moroccan tourist policy”.
The Minister has thus tackled the issue of the British airport tax (air passenger duty), ‘the impact of which has been extremely negative on the Moroccan tourism'. The doubling of such a tax, instituted on the first of February 2007 , “ has markedly disrupted the growth dynamics concerning the number of the British tourists getting to Morocco . Some destinations such as Marrakech, Agadir and mainly Fez have recorded a significant drop in the number of the arrivals of English tourists” Mr Boussaid explained.
For his part, Mr Timothy Morris, who has been swayed by this issue, has said that it is to be hoped that more British operators will invest in Morocco , more particularly in this profitable sector which is tourism.
It must be emphasized that the United Kingdom is one of the most important tourist-emitting destinations to Morocco . In 2007, 338 304 British tourists got to our country. Therefore, Morocco expects to receive 670 000 British tourists in 2010.At present, the United Kingdom is the third tourist-emitting market to Morocco after France and Spain.
Source: MAP
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