Morocco signs an agreement with the UNWTO for the promotion of investment, innovation and digitalization of the tourism sector

On the sidelines of the thematic session of the 117th Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) which has just been held in Marrakech and which focused on “TPME and Talents to transform tourism”, an agreement was signed with the UNWTO by Fatim-Zahra Ammor, Minister of Tourism, Handicrafts and Social and Solidarity Economy of Morocco; Imad Berrakad, Director General of the Moroccan Society of Tourism Engineering (SMIT) and Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization for the Promotion of Investment and Digitalization in the Tourism Sector in Morocco.

This agreement is part of the continuous efforts made by the Moroccan Government and SMIT to strengthen the attractiveness of Morocco as a destination to stimulate investments with high added value for the tourism sector.

This agreement revolves around three main axes, namely the promotion of tourist investment, innovation and digitalization and finally the support of Moroccan tourist SMEs.

Remember that investment, innovation and digitalization are major levers of the sector’s roadmap to double the number of tourists by 2030. As a result, this agreement is in line with the priority orientations for the development of tourism in Morocco. VSMEs, for their part, account for 95% of the Moroccan economy and are therefore of strategic importance.

In this context, tourist microbusinesses constitute a real spearhead for the resilience of the tourism sector and are the subject of several initiatives launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Crafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy and the SMIT, especially in terms of digitization. This agreement will accelerate the digitalization of TMPE through tailor-made support, provided by experts specialized in new technologies, throughout their digital transformation process.

In this context, Morocco has been chosen by the World Tourism Organization to be the pilot country of its “Digital Futures” program which will accelerate the digitalization of 10,000 small and medium-sized tourism enterprises with the objective of propelling the sector.