More than 400,000 overnight stays in the 1st semester

A real tourism boom in Fès. The spiritual capital is regaining its lustre and attracting more visitors. The statistics for the first semester testify to a 12% increase in overnight stays compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus, the classified accommodation establishments of the city of Fès achieved nearly 438,057 overnight stays at the end of June 2014, at a time when this figure did not exceed 392,400 overnight stays a year earlier.

"The evolution of the number of tourists at the level of the spiritual capital is mainly explained by the increase in overnight stays achieved by the main source markets, including the Japanese market (61%), German (56%), Italian (42%), English (37%), American (30%), and Spanish (27%)," explains the regional tourism delegation in this sense. In this regard, arrivals in classified hotels showed an increase of 14%, thus going from 185,794 to 212,196 arrivals at the end of June 2014. However, the average length of stay remained unchanged, thus standing at 2 days.

By hotel category, 4 and 5-star establishments and guesthouses have the lion's share.

These establishments alone account for the majority of the total overnight stays in the city of Fès. In the first semester, their occupancy rate reached 38% against 35% observed during the same period of the previous year. Evaluating by room, the regional tourism delegation indicates that 3,939 rooms were operational in the spiritual capital. The 5-star classified hotels counted nearly 1,088 operational rooms, against 1,208 rooms in the 4-star hotels, 636 rooms in the 3-star hotels, and 670 rooms in the guesthouses.

The city of Fès has a well-defined tourism roadmap. A programme contract, with an investment of 8 billion dirhams, is drawn up, covering the realisation of 29 projects, which is an additional bed capacity of 13,000 beds.

The city's tourism vision capitalises on its cultural and historical heritage. These projects will also allow for the reception of 1.1 million tourists by 2020. The tourism revenues expected in this sense should be around 11.7 billion dirhams. The tourism investments of the city of Fès will also contribute to the creation of 45,000 additional jobs, going from 32,800 currently to more than 78,000 by 2020.

Provider / Source : Kawtar Tali, Aujourdhui.ma