Interview with AbdelHamid Addou, Director General of Morocco National Tourist Office

What are the effects of the Arab Revolutions on the tourism in Morocco and how immune is tourism to these events?

When there are political changes in a region, from an economical standpoint, the entire region is affected. We as a country, and especially the tourism board, have decid

ed not to capitalize on others problems to boost our business. So we observed everything that happened elsewhere and hoped that everything would end quickly so that business can come up again. We certainly have been, and will still be, by the questions that people are asking themselves about whether this current situation is only done in some countries, or will it spread elsewhere, especially in Morocco.

We have had more than 10 years political debates and democracy and things are evolving very well in our country so we don't think that this will have an effect on our long term vision. We will still evaluate and make our country evolve in the right direction, but within our own political model, and that's why we are fairly sure that our business will stay firm and stable because our political stability is key and that's why we are confident in the future, unless of course any political issue in a neighboring country have a slight effect on our members. Until now these effects have not been very strong. What we have seen for the first quarter is a progression of the rivals in the destination. The only difficult month was March with a minus three percent.

The statistics for March are still preliminary numbers and are not final. It's a minus 3 for the first figures and it's a good signal about the final figures, and we know that these figures will not be too bad. For us, it could be perceived as good news, minus three is not too bad, but on the other hand we are seeing it on the other side, knowing that we were looking at a 15% progression the same month last year. So there is a gap of 15-18% in terms of incremental business we are lacking today.

You have decided that you will not capitalize on the other countries misfortune, and at the same time with the vision 2020, you hope to double the number of tourists. How are you going to attract these tourists without capitalizing on the other countries misfortune and how are you going to cope with the events that have indeed affected the tourism sector in Morocco?

Well, 2020 Vision is a 10 year vision; this is a short term situation. We will not capitalize on other peoples difficulties for any reason. We don't build strategy or an image of a country based on others problems. However, once the region stabilizes politically, we will fight with our own weapons and go for business, whatever it is.

But we will not be a competitor that is too pushy when others are in a difficult period. Secondly I personally, strongly, believe that the Mediterranean Sea has huge potential in terms of tourism. The whole region is progressing in a good direction, and we can progress more than that. If the whole region is not progressing then we will all fail. So if the political situation stabilizes, if the economy of the affected countries comes back and bring good numbers, then we will also benefit from it and we will try to go further and faster than our competitors.

You have mentioned that after a period of intense focus on a few countries, that was your strategy before, you were focusing on destinations such as France, you were now entering a new strategy that entails targeting markets in eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East, Japan, China, and North America, mainly the East Coast of the United States, you also said it would involve a multi-channel approach with regards to communication, with internet as its main corner stone. Apart from having your own website, how innovative is your internet strategy?

Before talking about innovation, we have decided on a huge strategic 180 degree turn. Before, we were putting 95% of our resources into traditional media such as TV, press, radio, in terms of advertisement, in terms of marketing tools. For the last three years we have been pushing hard all the new media types, internet being one of them, because today, it is one of the strength of any brand marketing. We have moved from a 5% share of internet in our global portfolio of media, to more than 35%, which is a decision that we took because we strongly believe that nearly 80% of the decision about which destination to visit, and how to buy a package will be done on the internet.

So we need to be very dynamic on this segment. Now once we have taken this decision we have started to launch some initiatives. We have launched some huge marketing campaigns with Morocco therapy which was a very dynamic website which was asking the Europeans as consumers to consider Morocco as a different destination from what they are used to. And it was done in a very friendly way with something that made the destination and the brand very close to the consumer.

We launched our new website. We are launching the first platform of information and reservation, which is a booking platform. We are one of the very few tourism boards to have our own booking platform which will be ready in a few weeks. We of course are much more present on any website in terms of banners and advertisement. We did this in a very intuitive way. Now we have made the decision to put in place a real strategy of how to go around the internet with all the new tools and by June we should have something for the next three years that will put us in a strategic mode of going into the net. We also believe that web TV will become something very strong. 

We launched a partnership with Youtube in which we put all our productions in terms of media, tv, and advertisements, and it is very popular its one of the most highly visited web TV's on the net. So all of these tools, including social networks like Facebook, were done because we believe there was a need, and now we need to strengthen everything and put it all into a strategy we can use for the next three years, starting this summer.

What would you consider as a major challenge for the tourism industry in Morocco, strategically speaking?

For us, and it's clearly specified in the vision 2020 that we have prepared, one of key drivers for tourists, especially repeat tourists, to visit a destination within the next 5-10 years, will be whether this destination respects the environment and whether it will be a sustainable destination. One of our biggest challenges will be either to make our product a sustainable tourism product or to show it, if that's already the case.

We know that our nature has not been spoiled; we know that we still have around 3000 kilometer of virgin beaches, and this is something we need to present to European travelers. But we also need to develop new products like Eco-Lodges and these types of green products that will become a key driver for travel in the future. A second challenge is education and training. We cannot build a strong destination with so much incremental bad capacities without the real resources.

We have a very young, dynamic, and innovative population, but that needs to be trained for tourism, because there is huge potential in terms of employment in tourism. This is for me the second challenge that needs to be addressed strategically and has been brought up in the vision, but we need to conclude it.

Is it true that you would like to create 147 thousand new jobs by 2020?

More than that. We need to reach 600,000 employees, which is huge. We need to build 200,000 new beds, which is not unrealistic because our country is a patchwork of destinations. You never visit Morocco in one visit. You will find different cultures wherever you are in Morocco. That's why this patchwork of culture is something that makes our unity very strong, makes our destination so appealing, that makes our positioning as an authentic and living culture destination so unique in the region. That's why we need to bring the right product, training, HR, and positioning, so that we can sell more and bring more tourists.

You mentioned that the corner stone of Vision 2020 is sustainable development. How do ordinary people in Morocco perceive sustainable development, and would it be a challenge for you in the future to educate the ordinary people you see on the streets, that interact with the tourists who come to Morocco, to be aware of this?

In our education, we have always had a very strong link with nature. I mean, all our families have deep roots in the agricultural side in the most remote of areas. This link has started to diminish because of the rural exodus. Now we have started, and for the past few years there have been some new ways to educate our citizens so that they can respect nature.

It's starting to become something important for all of us. The country and the state has put a strategic vision on solar energy as something very important to us that we need to achieve within the next 10 years a minimum of 42% solar energy dependency. So in the highest level of the state, the importance of sustainability is important.

And this brings the good messages to the global population. So we see that there is a change in the habits, and we are going back to our past and roots and this creates closer relationship to nature that should help us to become a sustainable destination and country.

We spoke a little bit about Brand Morocco. What is Brand Morocco to you and what is the slogan? What would define Morocco?

We have conducted a huge study where we questioned 9000 international travelers asking them the same question of how Morocco is perceived. And like any study you do on a brand; we got out of this study a positioning. Morocco is perceived as an authentic and living culture destination. This is our position and our equity, that means that Morocco is perceived as an old and told destination in terms of preserved nature.

Moroccans are perceived as having a high sense of hospitality and culture, as we can share and discover by sharing with Moroccans lots of culture and historical heritage and this is in the DNA of our destination. We are actually communicating on this positioning. All the selling lines of our brands are how Morocco nurtures the soul because we are perceived as being authentic and a living culture destination.

Is it a cause of concern to you that authenticity and living culture destination, although your vision is based on sustainable tourism, it still entails a massive development of new resorts. Could this authenticity be lost due to the fact that the nature has been due to rapid tourism development?

First of all, if we want Morocco to become a key sustainable destinations, that means we should not over build resorts which is what we are planning. We are planning to have a minimal average of beds per inhabitant per square meter. It's going to be something that respects nature. We will not build like other countries, resorts on the beach that will diminish the power of nature. So first we will build enough capacity but not in a very disorganized way.

Secondly, sustainability is not incoherent with authenticity. Sustainability is in complete coherence with authenticity because in the origin, our authenticity and preserved nature were living together. So by bringing back this sustainability as a destination, by bringing back this perception of a green destination, that is a reality today and has to remain reality, mixed with the authenticity of our destination as a culture and history, we can still communicate on this positioning of Brand Morocco.

The slogan of Moroccan Tourism agency is "Come and earn money with us". Can you elaborate on this statement, and what are the specific opportunities?

If it's a quote, it's simple. As a destination we have started, from my point of view, to re-strategize in terms of tourism. We had first started to strategize 10 years ago with is 15-20 years later than our competitors. In 10 years we have more than double our members and all the big operators who came to Morocco did very well in business.

Knowing the potential and proximity of the destination, there is no country within a 2-3 hour flight from any major city that could bring as much sun and beach opening in a 12 month period. For example you could swim in Agadir throughout the entire year. There is no destination three hours from Munich, London, or European capital that can bring all this.

 All the other destinations, which are either Mediterranean sea destinations, which have a 5-6 months seasonality, or farther destinations that are 5-6 plane rides which require a higher budget. This is why I strongly believe that if we make sustainability in a very good way, if we bring the good products and the right training in our sector, if we develop every Moroccan destination with its own position under the big Morocco umbrella as equity, we can more than double our numbers. So any big operator that wants to make good money has to come because it's in Morocco where the potential is. You cannot double in other countries. Y

ou will in Morocco because we believe we have the strength, strategy, and government push to double. That's why its time for everyone to invest in this country and make more money.

One question that we haven't discussed is the business tourism. What are your plans for this segment? What can the business traveler find in Morocco?

We as a country are close so close to Europe that any congress to organize in Morocco is a simple thing, as you doesn't need more than 2-3 hours to get there. But for that we need two things. First, the right infrastructures. We do have palaces of congresses in a few cities but it's not enough. We need more than that. Marrakech is thinking about a huge palace of congress with an exhibition park. Agadir is thinking about doing the same and Casablanca has already launched its own. We need to have big palaces of congress that can attract more congresses on a big scale. The second thing is to attract.

 You need to communicate and position yourself as a major business destination. That's why we are creating the Moroccan convention Bureau which should be ready by the end of the year. We are conducting a huge study to bench mark what is happening in the region and to set up a list of what types of organizations we need to have, who we should partner with. This is a huge study to know our environment. We know for example that there are nearly 9000 congresses of more than 1500 people every year in the world.

Within these 9000, 4500 are dynamic moving ones. Within these 4500 some of them can change countries and these are the ones we need to get in touch with and to attract and show them all the interests they have to organize their congress in Morocco. So it's going to be a very strong strategy for us in the upcoming years, starting this year.

What about the airline? Is there something that can be done to attract more?

For us today, any time we have a need in terms of airlift capacity, we fulfill this need. We conducted a study in Marrakech that showed us that in order to absorb all the need that we will have in the next 4-5 years in terms of number of tourists and bed capacities that we will need to have between 100 and 120 incremental frequencies, either new routes or new frequencies. This is for the next three years.

We started preparing a new plan with all airline companies and two operators to achieve this. And we are succeeding in it. As you may have noticed, BMI started flying to Morocco; British airways came back to the destination. BA usually does not return to a destination once they leave it, but they trusted in our tourism and returned after 6 years of absence. We have the biggest airlines that are already flying in the destination.

Open Sky has opened the doors to any airline. So we don't have a huge difficulty attracting the huge airlines for the right type of customers in the right destination. It needs discussion with airlines and they usually invest on bringing more planes to the country because they believe in our tourism.

What about your strategy towards professionals of the sector, the tour operators. How do you address them?

We have started a strategy for the past 5-6 years in which we said "If we want a tour operator to come to Morocco, need to show them all the interests they will have in terms of business for him, but we also need to help him to attract more customers." Some tour operators don't know the destination, we do.

That's why we started putting in place a quo marketing plan with every big and small tour operator in which we will commit to brining more tourists and to which we will share with him his costs of marketing in terms of campaigns, so that we can help him communicate in an efficient way towards his customers.

We can make sure that the message being sent to the regular customer is the right one, and the tour operator is reassured that we are all partners in this strategy of bringing more tourists to the destination.