African Tourism Board Statement on Morocco

Cuthbert Ncube, president of the African Tourism Board issued this statement on the earthquake in Morocco with more than 2000 dead at this time.

“It is with great pain to realize so many lives and the surging number of citizens who have lost their lives still rising.

At a time when tourism is bouncing back in most destinations, Morocco has realized a steady growth of arrivals surging by 92% with approximately 6.5 million tourists visiting the country in the first half of 2023 which gives the country the status of one of the Tourists hot spot destinations in North Africa.

The earthquake is one of the strongest to strike the North African nation in more than a century, and the Kingdom’s deadliest since 1960 with so many lives lost and infrastructure destroyed.

As the African Tourism Board our hearts go to the families who have lost their loved ones, the government of the kingdom and the tourism sector going through this challenging phenomenon where the acceleration of the industry was at its highest level of recovery after the effects of the Covid and to those injured.

We pray for their fast recovery.

Tourism has always reacted to any shockwave that impacts any destination negatively but with resilience, and we stand with the people of Morocco during these difficult times.

The African Tourism Board is a founding member of the World Tourism Network. the World Tourism Network (WTN) appealed to the Government of Morocco to accept foreign assistance to better deal with the pain of the earthquake.