Athens Journal of Tourism - Volume 6, Issue 1 – Pages 15-38

The Evaluation of Tourism Marketing Model

within Moroccan Public Policy Management
By Yassir Lamnadi
Morocco is situated in the north western Africa facing Europe on the Mediterranean and
on the other side open to the Atlantic Ocean benefiting from a favourable geographical
location as Africa’s gate to Europe. The country has four inscribed biosphere reserves,
and nine UNESCO inscribed world heritage sites. The performance of tourism in the
country kept a steady growth rate in the last decade despite being slightly affected by the
2008 world economic crisis; just to recover later by taking advantage of the unstable
political situation in competing neighbour countries, after the so-called ‘Arab Spring’.
This improvement in the performance of the Moroccan tourism sector is also among the
planned objectives of the two major tourism management plans in modern Morocco
(Vision 2010 and Vision 2020). Evidently, the second strategic plan (2020) came as a
continuation of the first one but with wider plans and bigger ambition. However, these
management plans were not all ‘la vie en rose’. The objectives of both programs were not
completely achieved (2020 vision is still two years away from completing its execution but
various gaps can be found in the realised points). A descriptive study was conducted to
evaluate the performance of the tourism marketing practices within Moroccan public
policy management. The tourism marketing strategy of both management programs was
critically reviewed to identify both their strengths and weaknesses. The findings of this
study show that public policy concerning tourism sector drove the country in the right
development path but still, the chosen marketing strategies were not highly efficient, given
the considerable various Moroccan tourism potential. Nevertheless, analysis also showed
that public tourism management policy was initially designed with some inadequate
approaches concerning the development of the sector. It has been suggested that the
government should concentrate more on a wider marketing approach that takes into
consideration the valorisation of the sustainable tourist product of the country and more
importantly empowering the human potential to be centric in parallel with the touristic
product.

Keywords: Morocco, public policy, tourism, tourism marketing, Vision 2020.

Introduction

As an industry, tourism is based on the supply and demand, and, obviously, a

marketing policy is required in order to have a clear business vision and
continuity. A good and efficient marketing policy also opens up new opportunities
for the destination product to reach new potential markets and keep it operating in
the long run. Usually, public agents such as tourism ministries, especially in third
world countries, undertake the promotion of a country‟s destination. The sector‟s
structure defines the efficiency of the marketing policy. However, there is usually
a difference in managing marketing policy between private and public


Phd Candidate, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Spain.

https://doi.org/10.30958/ajt.6-1-2 doi=10.30958/ajt.6-1-2
Vol. 6, No. 1 Lamnadi: The Evaluation of Tourism Marketing Model within…

stakeholders. It depends on the available resources, destination perceptions, and

target markets. In Morocco, one cannot find many differences between public and
private marketing policies. In both cases, similar promotion channels and
techniques are used.
As shown in Figure 1, Morocco had 11.35 million tourist arrivals in 2017
which makes it the first destination of Africa in terms of tourists‟ arrivals and the
third in tourism receipts after South Africa and Egypt (UNWTO 2017). These
figures reflect strong growth in the last ten years. It has maintained a growth line
despite the recent political turbulence that has affected other North African tourist
countries, especially Tunisia and Egypt. The latter has traditionally been the main
tourist destination in Africa. At present tourism has a significant influence on the
Moroccan economy. Between 2010 and 2013, revenues generated by international
tourism accounted for 6.5% of GDP (UNWTO 2014). In summary, the last fifteen
years Morocco has experienced a significant change in the economic structure
with tourism being the main factor of economic development.

Figure 1. The Evolution of Tourist Arrivals to Morocco

Source: Elaborated by author based on Tourism Ministry data.

However, this change in the structure of the economy might have led, in some
cases, to an excessive capital production (capital accumulation). This excess
capital has created a new challenge for the authorities to maintain its profitability
without inflation. Some official studies, which were carried out by the
government, suggested that one effective solution for this situation could lay in
creating more tourist-residential housing that generates much higher return rates
than the conventional hotel activity. The creation of these small-scale tourist
accommodations will help the state to solve effectively the capital accumulation
problem.
Management plans such as Vision 2010 and 2020 (Ministère du Tourisme
2001, Ministère du Tourisme 2010) are considered to be a perfect fit for such
measures. The overall achievement rates of the drawn objectives for both plans

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show some significant successes. The important increase in tourists arrivals,

(Africa's first destination), tourism receipts (more than $7,000 million in 2014) or
the jobs created (about 500,000 direct jobs) (UNWTO 2015, Observatoire du
Tourisme 2015); are very important results. Nevertheless, the profitability for the
State is questionable, if all the economic costs are taken into account, even more
so if we consider the environmental and social costs.

Methodology

This paper uses secondary sources of data to analyse the Moroccan tourism
marketing strategy. The collected data consisted of governmental reports and
studies, tourism sector statistics, and different scientific articles and studies
addressing the Moroccan tourism sector in general and specifically its marketing
strategies. These data were also used to form a descriptive profile of the Moroccan
tourism sector for the unfamiliar readers of the country‟s tourism sector. In
addition, the concept and definition of tourism marketing are reviewed in order to
build a coherent conceptual framework for the paper. The collected data were
analysed and categorised into data sets (codes, categories and sub-categories)
according to the nature and function of each variable in this paper. The main data
set categories were assigned to texts themed on tourism marketing for the texts
dealing with the country‟s marketing strategies/policies. Connected to this
category, other sub-categories were assigned for texts highlighting marketing
actors, marketing channels and marketing techniques. Codes were created within
the sub-categories to evaluate the nature and function of each single component.
The same process was carried out concerning public management data set
category and connected sub-categories. Some resource illustrations had to be
modified or re-elaborated without affecting its viability or significance.

Concepts and Definitions

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) of UK defines marketing as a

management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying
customer requirements at a profit. Kotler (2000) defines it as a set of activities
directed at facilitating exchanges. In 1988, he refined the definition to the business
function that identifies current unfulfilled needs and wants, defines and measures
their magnitude, determines which target the organization can best serve and
programs to serve these markets.
Lumsdon (1997) defines it as the managerial process of anticipating and
satisfying the existing and the potential visitors‟ needs more effectively compared
to competitors; tourism promotion is defined as the process designed to inform
potential visitors about the tourism product offered, sharing with them the most
attractive and innovative attributes. This process is usually integrated with
distribution and implies communication activities including advertising. Promotion
and marketing communication strategies are used by tourism destinations to

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influence destination image (Beerli and Martín 2004). For this, different media
information and communication technology (narratives/visuals) are deployed to
promote a destination image in the market (Govers et al. 2007). Gallarza, et al.
(2002) define a destination image as a complex concept, which is open to different
interpretation and as lacking a unique meaning.
The portrayal of destination image has been always affected by various
objective and subjective factors. It is, principally, feeding on the information
available on that certain destination. This information has many sources including
promotion (advertising and brochures), the opinions of others (family/friends,
travel agents), media reporting (newspapers, magazines, television news reporting
and documentaries) and popular culture (motion pictures, literature). Nevertheless,
Echtner and Ritchie (2003) point out that this information is always manipulated
by visitors‟ first hand impression: “Furthermore, by actually visiting the
destination, the image will be affected and modified based upon first-hand
information and experience”. Another approach was introduced by Gallarza et al.
(2002) by stating that despite the fact that tourism services are intangible, images
become more important than reality; and the tourism destination images projected
in information space will greatly influence the destination images as perceived by
consumers. Tasci and Gartner (2007) present a review of destination image
formation based on the works of (Alhemoud and Armstrong 1996, Bramwell and
Rawding 1996, Court and Lupton 1997, Gartner 1993, Gunn 1972, and Young
1999 as cited in Tasci and Gartner (2007)). They conclude that image formation is
defined as a construction of a mental representation of a destination on the basis of
information cues delivered by the image formation agents and selected by a
person.
This destination image research line was initially approached in two different
ways: empirical studies that apply statistical instruments without developing
theoretical frameworks; (Schroeder 1996 as cited in (Gallarza et al. 2002)). The
other approach consisted of empirical studies that address image measurement
problems while presenting methodological explanation (Carmichael 1992, Echtner
and Ritchie 1993, Reilly 1990 as quoted in (Gallarza et al. 2002)). They classified
destination image as a variable depending on various factors contributing to the
formation of the destination image (Tasci and Gartner 2007).
Baloglu and MacCleary (1999) state that “image is mainly caused or formed
by two major forces: stimulus factors and personal factors. The former are those
that stem from the external stimulus and physical object as well as previous
experience. Personal factors on the other hand, are the characteristics (social and
psychological) of the perceiver”. This formation process is addressed by two
different approaches (Gallarza et al. 2002). A static one that studies the
relationship between image and tourist behaviour; and a dynamic one that deals
with the structure and formation of the destination image itself.
It is important to note here that tourism promotion is not a standalone factor
within the destination image building process. Rather, it depends on other
information sources that are projected about the destination influencing its final
built image. Moreover, the variables affecting the destination image are various
and can differ in type and nature; such as destination preference and visitation

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intention; destination familiarity and the impact of previous visitation; tourists‟

geographical locations; trip purpose; situational or temporal influences; the image
as projected by the destination; and tourists‟ sociodemographic variables (Govers
et al. 2007).
The image of a destination, its formation process controlled or formed by
various components, is seen by a large part of literature as dynamic rather than
static. Gallarza et al. (2002) point out that this dynamism depends on variables
such as distance, residents and, most importantly, time and space. Moreover, the
interaction between these variables can occur on three dimensions: measuring
subject‟s perception, objects and destinations, and image attributes and
characteristics. The time variable can affect image in three different ways: length
of stay in image destination, time interval between repeated visits to the same
destination and the effect of previous visitation on image formation (Gallarza et al.
2002). Similarly, the space variable influences the image formation process
depending on where the visit occurs and the study circumstantiality (Gallarza et al.
2002). Given the fact that the inter-relationships between these variables influence
the destination image, it consequently affects the visitors‟ satisfaction level, as
well, through a set of dependencies. Decrop (1999) as quoted in (Del Bosque and
San Martin 2008) suggests that the effect of image variables on the consumer
behaviour in tourism is what defines the satisfaction level. He, also, states that the
cognitive and emotional approaches are highly adequate for analysing tourist
decision making and behaviour processes.
In the same sense, these variables surrounding the destination ought to be
rooted in any destination image promotion to portray a „true destination identity‟.
Therefore, this identity is reflected in the actual tourism experience and the
impression which the visitor is left with and this affects the tourist satisfaction
(Govers and Go 2004). However, Echtner and Prasad (2003) note that, in this
context, two significant gaps could occur if a) the tourism product and the way is
promoted are not convenient with the destination‟s identity, or b) when the
destination image is idealistically perceived through promotion causing unrealistic
expectations to the tourist.
Despite the considerable progress carried out by researchers in the tourism
marketing field, yet such a field is perceived to be too narrow. Most of the studies
presented in this paper tend to focus on specific topics within tourism marketing
literature such as destination image, internet marketing, and market segmentation.
Moreover, there are, still, a number of areas, within tourism marketing literature,
which have not been acknowledged or managed, due to unclear motives and are
ignored by scholars contributing to this discipline of tourism research. These
ambiguities may reflect gaps in the theoretical understanding of tourism marketing
causing, consequently, bigger gaps between tourism research and real world
practices. However, in parallel with the progress of tourism industry, general
marketing theories also achieved considerable progress. Presently, the way that
tourism marketing is taught and researched has been widely criticised for being
done as in 1960s, but patched with decorations such as services, relationships and
e-businesses. This urges a pressing need for reinventing marketing theories to fit
the present and the future (Gummesson 2002).

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Findings/Results

Promotion Actors

In Morocco, the main tourism agent is the ONMT (Office National Marocain
du Tourism), a public administration created in 1918 in charge of the promotion
and marketing of the product „Morocco‟ on the national and international level.
The Office plans promotion strategies as a public stakeholder, as it has become a
statuary branch of the Tourism Ministry. However, it may include in its promotion
strategy some of the private stakeholders as well, as a collaboration policy
between public and private sector. For instance, during the last two decades, many
promotion projects were implemented along with some private actors such as
travel agencies, real estate investors etc. Other public/private collaborations may
be involved at different levels in this promotion process (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Structure of Moroccan Tourism Promotion

Source: Author.

The Tourism Ministry

The governmental administration is mainly supervising the tourism sector in

the country, which defines itself as the governmental authority in charge of
tourism. Its main mission is to elaborate and implement the government policy
concerning the tourism sector and related aspects. It is designated with the
following mission:

 Develop, implement and evaluate the tourism development strategy.

 Conduct studies and necessary surveys for the development of tourism at
both national and regional level.
 Develop draft laws and organizational texts relating to tourism activities
and ensure their application.
 Supervise and support tourism professions and activities in accordance
with the reinforced regulations.

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 Orientate, control the deconcentrated services and evaluate the necessary

means for their management.
 Participate in the development and management of the hotel and tourism
training strategy.
 Supervise training institutions under the Ministry of Tourism (Figure 3);
 Ensure the establishment and strengthening of relations in the framework
of bilateral cooperation as well as with specialized organizations.
 Ensure the guardianship of institutions under the Ministry of Tourism.

In addition to the centrality nature of developing management plans for the

sector, the ministry, also, have territorial representations in each region. These
regional delegations are charged with applying the ministry‟s tourism policy on
the local level. Despite being under the central authority of the ministry, they still
possess a margin of intervention locally such as supervising the sector in the
region and get involved in collaboration with local stakeholders for the sake of
developing the sector, walk through new tourism related investment, and
spontaneous interventions in cases of regulation breeches concerning the
functioning of tourism establishments.
As shown in Figure 3, the ministry consists of three main departments:
strategy and cooperation; department of regulations, development, and quality; and
department of resources and formation. The ministry does not project touristic
promotion directly; rather, it collaborates in developing promotion strategies with
its two main affiliates; the ONMT and the SMIT

The ONMT

A public institution, with administrative character, created in 1918, and acted

since then as a key player in the Moroccan tourism sector; its mission is to
promote and market the product „Morocco‟ both at the national and international
level. It has been assigned, in addition, the creation, the development and the
management of facilities that contribute to the development of tourism, including
accommodation infrastructure.
The commercial dynamism, of which the promotion strategy is an essential
component, was an important link in Vision 2010 with the objective of "restoring
the competitiveness of Morocco‟s destination and product". In this sense, it was
agreed to restructure the entire promotion system with the aim of developing, in
consultation with professionals, a more creative and responsive promotional
policy.
In order to promote the notoriety of the destination „Morocco‟ in the markets
carried out by the strategic positioning of the sector, the ONMT set the objective
of revising its promotion strategy in the direction of articulating it around
"product", especially seaside and cultural product, instead of "destination". The
review of marketing and communications strategies raised comments related to the
development of marketing plans, the process of allocating promotional budgets,
and the implementation of these marketing plans.

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Figure 3. Tourism Ministry Structural Hierarchy

Source: Author.

ONMT‟s marketing and communication plans are a reproduction of the

elements drawn at the level of the strategic plans. Indeed, they contain only
summary elements such as the number of contracts to be concluded with Tour
Operators at the level of each market, the number of fairs on which the ONMT
intends to be present as well as the media to be used for institutional
communication. The promotion activities to be deployed at the level of each
market have also undergone a clear change compared to the marketing plan
adopted initially with the start of Vision 2010, particularly for Italy, the United
Kingdom and the Gulf countries in terms of institutional communication that was
not originally planned.
Nevertheless, important tourism market niches, whose potential is
indisputable, could have contributed positively to the said performances if they
had received a particular interest. These are Moroccans Living Abroad (MRE),
domestic tourism and "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions" (MICE).
With regard to MREs, whose share of total overnight stays did not exceed 0.3% in
2012, the ONMT did not undertake any measures in the sense of an understanding
of their profile, their tourist behaviour, their expectations and perceptions of
holidays in Morocco and the possibility of converting them to the consumption of
tourism products.
Under this pressure of taking Moroccan tourism to a better position, and in
order to keep in line with the recent changes in the global tourism industry. The
office announced in June 2015 that it is undertaking a deep change in its internal
organisation structure. The new organization chart is structured around three main
activities, namely the strategic activities relating in particular to the definition of
Morocco‟s brand strategy, the operational implementation of product strategies,
and the coordination of all communication actions. For their part, the operational
activities consist of the distribution of the Morocco brand in the various markets,
the animation of delegations abroad while guaranteeing a single interlocutor for
the provision of resources, adding that the support activities represent the main

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provider of financial, material and human resources and a guarantee of respect for
the financial balance of the Office.
The restructure consisted of the creation of two new internal departments; as
for the "Digital & New Technologies" Department, it will be in charge of the
integration of new technologies in the promotion strategy of the destination
Morocco to offer a better visibility on the Internet. While "Morocco and internal
tourism" department will have as main missions the participation in the definition
of the strategic orientations of Morocco‟s brand and the development of a deep
knowledge and an expertise of the product Morocco. The general orientation of
the new structure tends to focus on participation in the definition of product
positioning, the development of awareness and the image of domestic tourism and
the development of a permanent contact with tourism sector professionals in
Morocco, local authorities and the press.

The SMIT

A public institution created in December 2007 by the Moroccan State with the
aim of implementing the strategy of development of the tourist product in
Morocco (see Figure 4). It emanates from the need to bring out a public actor in
charge of the construction of the tourist product. In addition to carrying out new
major projects on behalf of the State or legal entities governed by public law
throughout the national territory, the SMIT has other mission such as:

 Conducting studies for the implementation of tourism development

strategy adopted by the public authorities.
 Market studies for the definition of the different product ranges.
 Preliminary studies for the identification of tourist areas and those
concerning the development and implementation of plans for the
development of tourist areas.
 Carry out actions of promotion and tourist development with the investors
and assist the public authorities in the choice of the candidatures with the
calls for tenders.

In an international competitive context between tourist destinations,

differentiation has become one of the major challenges of development. The SMIT
states, on its official webpage, that it places attractiveness at the heart of its
concerns with the aim of making the most of the assets of each touristic region to
make it a true competitiveness cluster. Raising various challenges for the
Moroccan tourism sector namely design the offer, identify and highlight tourist
sites of interest, mobilize land, guide public and private investment, support
investors and tourism operators, facilitate their development in Morocco.

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Figure 4. SMIT Internal Organization

Source: Elaborated by author based on: smit.gov.ma/fr/notre-organisation/.

Throughout the years, the SMIT accumulated a solid experience in structuring

and assembling flagship projects. It provides private investors, local authorities
and various public stakeholders with a team of professionals and a personalized
and quality service offering to support them since the initial conception of their
project until they are put into operation (Figure 4). Its main objective is to support
these partners to increase their economic competitiveness and thus contribute to
the success of their development. SMIT's intervention focuses on the strategies of
tourism projects, by defining and implementing large-scale promotional actions
able to support the attractiveness of the Morocco destination as a tourist investment
hub. The SMIT, also, has some considerable presence on the international level.
Taking advantage from its network of international partners, it seeks to place
Morocco at the centre of global tourism investment and thus make the country a
key destination for tourism investments.

Regional Centres of Investment (CRIs)

The CRI (Centre Regional d‟Investissement) creatred by the state in order to

pursue its policy of regionalization of business creation and investment projects
since October 2002. This entity has taken place at the heart of each region and
provides both consultation and support in the steps that entrepreneurs or investors
must take. It displays a proximity character by remaining available at any time and
a professional one by participating effectively in the implementation of projects.
Its main roles are business creation help, assistance and investment projects,
maintaining and developing existing investments, improving the attractiveness of
the region to investments in sectors with high potential. The CRI is above all a

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partner for any project leader in Morocco. Figure 5 shows that structurally
speaking, it consists of two main departments that form the core operation the
CRIs perform nationally for help desk for starting businesses as a unique
interlocutor of contact for all business starters/project holders; or the Investment
Assistance Division which provides investors with all the useful information for
regional investment; study all requests for administrative authorizations; and
prepares all necessary administrative acts to the realization of investment projects.

Figure 5. Casablanca Regional CRI Organization

Source: Elaborated by author based on Source: casainvest.ma.

Investors willing to operate in the country on its different regions can find at
the correspondent CRI alliance and partnership. In this public institution,
necessary information for the creation of a business or investment in the region
and a valuable help is presented. The CRI in Morocco is an intermediary entity
between the project manager and the administrations that enables him to guarantee
the creation of the enterprise. As part of the assessment of the experience of these
centres, significant results were recorded at the level of business creation,
particularly in the reduction of creation time. Court of Auditors (financial
jurisdiction provided mainly responsible for monitoring the regularity of public
accounts of the State), notes in a report, published in 2015, that several internal
and external constraints that did not allow these entities to achieve the objectives
assigned to them, including the adoption of action plans specific to each one. In
addition, the report points to the lack of a special status of CRI staff, the existence
of financial resources dependent on state subventions, the lack of follow-up of the
companies created, and a limited role of CRIs in the implementation of national
policies at the local level. The report, also, mentions the inadequacy of the IT
interconnection of CRIs with their partners, the limited representation of
administrations within the interlocutor and the absence of a single system for the

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payment of creation costs, as well as a legal framework that governs the Regional
Investment Commission.

National Confederation of Tourism (CNT)

Created in 1995, its main mission is to bring together all the tourism
professions and contribute to the reinforcement of the structures of the various
professions for greater efficiency and participation at the regional level namely
Regional Federations of Tourism (FRT). Initially, the CNT was under the
supervision of its mother federation, the CGEM (Confédération générale des
Entreprises du Maroc), of which it was externalised since 2007 but remains
statutorily attached to it. The CNT acquires a new ambitious structure turned
towards its members: Regional Federations of Tourism) and National (National
Federations of Tourism Professions). The following are the seven National
Federations of Tourism professions included in the confederation: 1) National
Federation of Hotel Industry; 2) National Federation of Moroccan Travel
Agencies; 3) Association of Touristic Investors; 4) Federation of car rental
companies without a driver in Morocco; 5) National Federation of Restaurants
owner; 6) National Federation of Tour Guides and Mountains Guides; 7) National
Federation of Tourist Transporters. The CNT designates its intervention in the
sector on three main strategic axes; the strategic interlocutor of the entire sector to
the public authorities and to all decision-makers; achieving the deployment of the
2020 vision; provide real services to members.

Travel Agencies (Tour Operators)

One other of the most vital actors contributing to the national tourism sector is
the network of Tour Operators (TO) providing trips and circuits services along
with accommodation and other leisure products. These agencies could be
categorised to many sets according to their nationality (national/foreign), operating
cities, and provided products. In their majority, the present ones are the national
TO focusing their products on the desert and imperial cities. In general, these are
the product most acquired by tourist arriving to Morocco. Within this network, a
set of criteria might affect the each TO‟s sales on the market. These could be
product type, pricing, operating cities, and coherence or variety of the circuits. The
major tour operators in the country may be found in the table below (Table 1).

Hotel Industry

The hotel industry or accommodation services providers in general follow the

same distribution logic of TO across the country. Large or international hotel
chains are focused on Marrakech and Agadir, which both contains 46% of the total
accommodation capacity of the country (Tourism Ministry 2017). The categories
distributed on the two cities may differ from high-end luxury resorts to humble
houseguest or small-scale apartments. The most represented hotel chain in
Morocco is, with no doubt, the French group Accor (which is dominant in luxury

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as well as in low-cost category). This group also manages other subgroups that are
considered of its brand too such as: Ibis, Fairmont, Banyan Tree, L‟univers Sofitel,
Pullman, etc. across the major Moroccan cities (Marrakech, Agadir, and
Casablanca) where the majority of accommodation capacity can be found. To
illustrate more on this point, detailed information concerning dominant hotel
chains can be found in Table 2 below.

Table 1. Major Tour Operators in the Country

Tour
Operating cities Products
Operators
National Travel Agencies
+Tours for group of people, a family, individuals (from 2
people), even travel agencies, tour operators.
Aventure +Trekking circuits all around south and south-east
Marrakech
Berebere Morocco, 17 different circuits.
+Thematic tours such as 4x4 circuits, Riyads-Hotels,
Autotour, Family Stay, etc.
+Five categories of travel. Trekking circuits, Family
Amaris
Marrakech Travel, School Travel, Solidary Travel, and Nature-
Voyages
Culture Travel.
+Private transportation, camel trekking, sandboarding,
Erg Chigaga, Erg
events organization.
Top Desert Chebbi and Erg
+Private tours to the Sahara desert and to all-important
Lihoudi
Morocco destinations.
+Each destination, the main hotels in the city and their
Marrakech, main accommodation offers.
Atlas
Agadir, and +Organised trip to south Morocco + Days circuit between
Voyages
Essaouira. Ouarzazate and Merzouga cities inculing food,
accommodation and may other cultural activities.
+Travel packages to Istanbul, Cairo and Dubai.
+Three-days circuit „Marrakech - Terres D‟Amanar -
Ourika – Oukaimeden‟ as product for Moroccan
Majestic
Rabat Destination.
Tours
+„Excurssion‟ which consisits of circuits between various
Moroccan cities; Agadir, Marrakech, Casablanca, Fes,
Ouarzazate, Essaoouira, Tanger, Rabat, etc.
+Easter Holidays which is a 9 days/ 8 nights circuit
organised between the cities of Marrakech - Ouarzazat -
Tinghir - Merzoga - Midelt - Ifrane - Fés - Meknes -
Rabat – Casablanca.
+Athentic Desert, 8 days/7nights tour including the cities
Marisar Rabat,
Marrakech - Ouarzazate - Zagora - M'hamid El Ghizlane.
Manar Casablanca, and
+Desert and Sea another 8 days/7nights circuit focusing
Travel Marrekech
on the seaside.
+Morocco Tour 15 days/14 nights visiting 16 cities:
Casablanca - Rabat - Tanger - Tetouane – Chefchaoune -
Meknes - Volubilis – Fes - Erfoud - Rissani – Zagora -
Ouarzazate - Taroudant – Agadir - Essaouira– Marrakech.
+„Dakhla Discovery‟. A four-days stay at the Atlantic
OLE city known for its surfing shores.
Dakhla
Voyages +Three circuit programs featuring Merzouga and
Ouarzazate mainly.

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Foreign Tour Operators

+Local receptive, responsible for ensuring all
Marrakech, logistics (Organization of stays, group management,
Fram
Casablanca home, animation, etc.) in France, Morocco, Tunisia
and Senegal.
Major +Different tour covering the major cities of the
Look
Moroccan country with numerous options in tour duration and
Voyages
destinations quality.
+The stretched streets of Old Fez, as well as hiking
in the Rif Mountains.
+Tours in south of the country to explore the
Thomas Marrakech,
product desert. Its most used trips are the
Cook Agadir, and Fez
+Short ones between Marrakech and Agadir due to
the potential of the two cities and their fame among
tourist as the most wanted destinations in Morocco
It offers many
+Circuits destined to European visitors in general
and especially French.
Nouvelles Moroccan +The tours are varied between 4 x 4 tours between
Frontiers imperial cities Moroccan imperial cities with round flights,
accommodation, and meals included. The pricing
policy is based on the European model since it is
destined to Europeans.
Source: Author.

Table 2. The Major Dominant Hotel Providers in Morocco

Hotels Desciption
The Golden Tulip hotels: Present in Morocco since 2006, Louvre
Hotels Group currently has 7 establishments, including 6 Golden
Tulip and 1 Tulip Inn, managed within a local structure. the Group
has set up a real strategy of tailor-made development, in both in the
Louvre
economic hotel and in mid-range and luxury hotels. The Group has
Hotels Group
plans to establish its first-class brands in the major economic
centres of the country (Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat, Tangiers,
and Fez) as well as in medium-sized cities like El Jadida, Meknes
and Oujda to address both the international and local clientele.
The leading Moroccan hotel group, offering excellent service and
high-profile professionalism in the Moroccan hotel industry. The
group entered the Moroccan market to compete on the same level
with foreign hotel chains in luxury products. As stated on the group
website, its vision is to be the hallmark, the ultimate reference and
Kenzi Hotels the landmark of fine hotels in today‟s Modern Morocco; to be
known as a well-reputed brand, its standards of excellence
consistent in all locations, well known and prominent for its high-
quality service and its excess of guest experiences and gastronomic
art. The group is present with 10 establishments distributed between
Casablnca, Marrakech, Tanger, Agadir and Errachidia.

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High-end French-style hotels established in 1954, an association of

more than 550 landmark hotels and restaurants operated by
independent managers, chefs, and owners who perform under the
name of the brand. The group uniquely formulates its hotels
Relais and services in parallel with the country‟s culture values. It offers an
Châteaux introduction to a lifestyle inspired by local culture. They stress on
protecting and promoting the richness and diversity of the world‟s
cuisine and traditions of hospitality as well as preserving local
heritage and environment. It has 5 establishments in Fes, Rabat,
Essaouira, and 2 in Marrakech.
A luxury hotel in the Old Medina of Casablanca, The hotel has a
255 rooms, including 223 deluxe king and twin rooms, 11 junior
suites, 19 executive suites and 3 royal suites, and 8 conference
rooms accommodating from 20 to 400 people. Its restaurants, such
Hyatt Hotels
as Cafe M, Dar Beida, Bissat and the outdoor Les Bougainvillées
Corporation
cater in Moroccan, fusion or Parisian cuisine. They have a special
line of accommodation called „King Rooms‟ cover 31 square metres
with extreme luxurious equipments and privelages intended to VIPs
and high-profile guests like politicians and diplomatic bodies.
Located in the heart of 20 acres of Moroccan gardens and olive
groves, Mandarin Oriental, is a hotel five stars located just minutes
away from Marrakech city centre. With its excellent facilities and
world-class cuisine, it allows to discover all the country‟s qualities.
This hotel brand is only present in Marrakech but it‟s one of the
Mandarin
most famous accommodation facilities in the country. It usually
Oriental
hosts the national and international conferences, sports events, and
different festivals. its view on the Atlas Maintains in the
background gives it such a privilege. Its offer varies from luxurious
villas, spacious suites, and exceptional spa. Along with a wide
choice of innovative restaurants.
This hotel collection includes five stars: the Hivernage Hotel & Spa,
The Pearl Marrakech, Riad Marrakech by wintering and Palm Villa
by Hivernage. It offers an exclusive offer and terraces offering
views of the medina, the Atlas Mountains and ancestral monuments.
Hivernage Located in the centre of the city, the prestigious hotels of the Group
Collecion Winter Collection are high-end of Moroccan luxury hotels. The
various units of the group are in the neighbourhoods and the most
exclusive places in the Kingdom. The Winter Collection Group also
offers world gastronomy restaurants that are distributed on major
imperial cities of the country.
A sub brand of the Banyan Tree Holdings Limited which is a large
international tourism investments group based in Singapore.
Originally from Thailand, the company operates more than 26
Angsana
luxury hotels and resorts, 65 spas, 70 retail outlets and 3 golf
Riads
courses worldwide under the brand names Banyan Tree and
Collection
Angsana. In Morocco it is present as Agsana Riads in major
Moroccan cities (Marrakech, Rabat, Agadir, etc) with 10
establishments in total.
Source: Elaborated by author.

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Promotion Channels

Once the promotion strategy is drawn, the actors included (private and/or
public) tend to establish a work plan based on the drawn strategy guidelines.
Depending on the nature and function of each actor, their intervention in terms of
projecting a certain promotional material may vary. In addition, the techniques
used to transmit the promotion of the destination may differ largely. This section
highlights the main channels through which promotion actors project their
promotional image. This projection is executed principally on three levels; 1)
direct information, 2) public relations, and 3) touristic advertisement.

1. Direct information refers to the general and basic information about a

given destination available for tourists and easily accessed. It could be
acquired at tourism information centres that represent a permanent form
of information to the public. This presentation could be done through
engaging in interaction with visitors, animation of the visitors‟ in
parallel activities while presenting the destination product, or by
facilitating the purchase of stay/service to visitors. By all means, this
channel is the most traditional one but still the most reliable in third
world destination due to lack of modern technologies used in the
process.
a. Moreover, direct information about a destination could be found
also in documentation tools/ tourism diffusion. This includes
informative brochures and folds made at visitors‟ disposal at
either booking points or while on arrival. In addition, Mailing
old clients or potential new ones, could be diffused in travel
agencies, tourism offices, or at national representation in foreign
countries.
2. Public relations with similar importance as information projection or
advertisement, PR inside tourism must be planned and coordinated with
other promotion forms, which touch the public directly, or with a press
intermediate using read, spoken, or visual press. Big tourism enterprises
use this method. Another way of using press as promotion channel
could be aired interviews, press conferences, or even journalists travel.
a. Direct relation with the public without involving cooperation of
the press, so that many promotion actors could be directed to
other opinion formers. These direct promotional forms could be
many and diverse such gastronomy, diffusion of static or
animated image (movies, expositions.).
3. Touristic advertisement, like any other advertiser, tourism ones should
follow the same strategy based on five crucial decisions while
projecting their destination image.
i) Theme: the offer must seek, in a persuasive manner, a simple
message and within the possible rather than a choice of
arguments or propositions. It must take into consideration that a

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potential client does not excel at choosing between highly

varied propositions.
ii) Target: On different markets, where touristic accommodation
competition is intense, product suppliers seek to conquer new
potential clientele. These suppliers, often, focus more on
clientele adaptation to their products sections more than the
preadaptation of the product to fit different clienteles. Market
study in this case is conducted only to sensitive points to tackle
in potential clients, since the clientele range is already known to
the suppliers.
iii) Support: the choice of collaborating media (establishment, TV
channel, Radio station...) is carried out considering the level of
pricing process, capacity of product supply, and the mode of
commercialisation applied by the competitors in the same
aspect. However, knowing the precise features of the clienteles
group such as dominant gender, age, economic status... could be
crucial in the choice of marketing support.
iv) Campaign: the preparation of a promotion campaign should take
in consideration, imperatively, the projection timeframe. For
instance, the period and duration of campaign, frequency and
emission dates should be performed in parallel with high
seasons or most busy months of the year. These parameters are
crucial in determining the success of the campaign. It really
relies on the precise knowledge of the potential clientele.
v) Announcement (Emission): focusing on the good pricing, it
must be stated the most important feature. It could be also useful
to use precise facts and avoid generalisation or other common
used ones, the idea here is to be special, unique, attractive. Not
to mention the creativity in product projection and offer
variation. The emission must focus, more importantly, on the
best argument the supplier has and make it the leading motive.

These techniques are, in general, the ones deployed actually on the promotion
in the Moroccan tourism sector. However, they might be used differently
depending on the nature and function of the actors using them. However, the
promotional material is conveyed through various distribution channels such as
travel agencies, trade and tourists exchange, professional associations, press
releases, web-based portals.

Promotion Techniques

Since the Moroccan state, in the tourism development process, acts as a

planner, manager, and promoter; it is the main actor who is in charge (directly or
indirectly) of the realisation of vision 2010 objectives. Among the main points of
this vision is the promotion of destination Morocco with diversified product and to

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new markets. The initial action plan (2010) concerning promotion was focused on
the following points:

 Product: triple classified accommodation capacity replying to international

standards
 Transportation: activate the open-sky policy and open various new airlines
with European capitals.
 Marketing: communication, commercialisation, adapted and efficient
promotion policy. Repositioning of destination Morocco. Anticipation on
the market of responsible tourism programme.
 Institutional organisation: creating organs of consultation and coordination
between public and private sector actors; on regional and national level.
 Formation (professional training): professionally prepare 72,000 qualified
personnel for the national tourist reception.
 Tourism environment: applying a set of general measurements to enhance
tourist reception (airports, indication system, and access to information).
 Sector restructuration: Quality responsible and sustainable tourism

The ONMT (Office National Maroccain du Tourisme) is the main (public)

promoter of tourism in the country. Its main mission is the promotion and
Marketing of destination Morocco locally and internationally. The office follows a
triple strategy in order to achieve the points mentioned above: 1) Product
strategies: hard focus on seaside segment, by extending the seaside offer to a more
diversified one and distributed as well on the Mediterranean coast consisting
mainly of building new resort such as in Saidia, Alhoceima, Tetouan, Tangier.
Surely, this will go in parallel with the repositioning of cultural product to make a
more complete one and representing the real Moroccan potential. 2) Price strategy:
improve relationship quality/price of destination Morocco; this policy suggests
coordinated pricing process between professional conventions, and pricing
reference network. Pricing quality coordinated with quality labels, as part of the
legislative and regulatory provisions, the establishment of a quality label for all
tourist-oriented businesses located in tourist development zones. 3) Promotion
strategy: restriction of promotion scheme, restructure the whole of the operative
part of the promotion of the destination with the objective of designing, in
consultation with professionals, a policy of promotion more creative, responsive
and adapted to the needs. Strengthen the OMNT‟s financial means and refocus the
activities on promoting the image of Morocco abroad. Restructuring the entire
tourism tax system so that collected taxes can be invested into tourism promotion.
Charge the costs of staff trained under the OMNT supervision to ministry.
Restructure the OMNT by amending its denomination and developing its mode of
operation, to associate representatives of the profession into decision-making
bodies.
As an ultimate objective, the state increased the promotion budgets by
creating a promotion fund managed by the ONMT and powered by the tax of
tourism promotion and the State budget with participation of the private sector in
proportions to be defined on future agreements between all parties. The set

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objective was an annual share of 500 million dirhams (45 Million €) in the horizon
of 2020, exclusively intended for the promotion. The state reached an agreement
between different implied actors in the sector on the need to schedule this effect an
increase of the product of the TPT (Taxe de Promotion Touristique) and predict
the contribution of other institutions (private or public) benefiting from tourism
revenues.

Discussion

Since the late 1990s, Morocco started to empower tourism as an economic

levitator for the country (Sbai 2012). This process of bringing tourism to the front
of the economic situation started much earlier than that. Its very first aspects were
implanted as soon as the dawn of independence (Berriane 2002), with the creation
of the Sherefian committee of tourism as the first Moroccan public institution
charged with tourism. This committee will be transformed later to the ministry of
tourism (Stafford 1996).
However, this long turn in the Moroccan tourism policy from a neglected
sector to one of the main economic pillars of the country witnessed various ups
and downs through its progress line. This progress line can be divided into many
different periods. Almeida and Chahine (2016) divide it into three periods: 1) pre-
Fordist starting from after independence in 1956 when the majority of public
investments were focused on agriculture and water infrastructure. For tourism, in
this period, there were few resorts creating plans in the north and historical cities
as part of the Triennial Plan; 2) Fordist period which started in the early 1970s,
there was a shift in the public tourism policy towards attracting mass tourism.
Promotion agencies were created to target international tourists and especially
European market. However, this period went through a critical drop in tourists due
to the Gulf War and other political/economic events in the area. This situation led
to start the privatization process of considerable public supply accommodation;
and 3) post-Fordist, with the beginning of the new monarchy period in 1999,
tourism was put in priority for the economic development of the country. Public
policies were pointed towards creating strategic plans that focuses on international
investments and liberating air space and the creation of large holiday resorts. This
new policy direction was translated later to what is known as the major tourist
development strategy in the country, i.e. Vision 2010 and vision 2020 in
continuation.
Despite the considerable position of Morocco destination among its regional
competitors, the ambitious objectives set to be realised by the end of 2020 (Vision
2020) are still stuck to the previous vision 2010 expectations. After more than 7
years of its completion, tourists‟ arrivals are still hanging in the 10 million interval.
However, the surrounding or external circumstances affected to some extent the
growth of the Moroccan tourism sector, especially for European countries given
the fact that Europe is the first tourist transmitter to Morocco. The late economic
crisis back in 2008/2009 affected severely European investment in the country.
Many corporations had to sell or withdraw their shares in resort projects that

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belonged to Plan Azur (2010 and 2020). Also, the latest terrorist attacks in various
European cities (Paris, London, Berlin, Brussels) led to spread fear among the
public about visiting any country in the region; even though Morocco marked a
clean security record during the last decade (since the last terrorist attacks in
Casablanca 2003). This wrong idea formulated to the European public is due to the
misleading media propaganda. The non-efficient promotion of Moroccan
destination to those areas allows those wrong ideas of chaos and insecurity to
spread quicker and wider. In addition to this factor, essential points that make
promotion of the product Morocco inefficient.
The poor optimization of communications established by the ONMT has not
managed to get into regional and international dynamics. There is no
regionalization of promotion through the CRTs. In this context, Laws 1995 (cited
in Cox and Wray 2011) proposed five key phases of destination marketing which
ease the path to development objectives. 'diagnosis phase' in which destinations
must assess the market situation through inspection of existing tourist facilities,
identification of tourists‟ preferences and behaviours about the destination, and
identification of competitor destinations. Then comes the “prognosis phase”,
which seems to have more futuristic view, regarding the planning of destination‟s
development. The other three phases consist of setting objectives for the regional
destination; implementing marketing strategy; and monitoring marketing
performance. However, in the Moroccan tourism context we can notice the
absence of some of these phases in the country‟s tourism marketing plans
especially the first one (the diagnosis phase). This absence lays in the sector
invariant facilities as well as the inconsistent competitive performance compared
to similar product based destinations in the area.
In parallel with the external promotion efforts, the ONMT has also future
plans to regionalize the touristic promotion; that is to say that the office will carry
out this mission (the institutional image of destination Morocco) so that each
region can execute the promotion and marketing of its own territory. Concerning
the financial aspect, part of the budget drawn for the operation ought to stay at the
ONMT and another will be transferred to the regions with the support of CRIs and
sector professionals. The benefits for the regions from this regionalized promotion
are the expected investments that will generate jobs. It is also the role of the
regionally elected councils to promote their destinations and boost the economy of
their regions.
Cox and Wray (2011) point out that destination marketing, in its traditional
perspective, has focused on image creation and promotion aimed at achieving
growth in domestic and international arrivals rates. Adding that recently carried
out research tend to recommend more emphasis on adopting a sustainable
marketing approach that combines sustainable destination management and
development objectives. This approach explicitly suggests that destination
marketing should act as a strategic tourism management tool which creates some
kind of balance between the market objectives of stakeholders and the destinations
sustainability. In addition, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO 1999)
proposed a sustainable model for marketing destinations. This model consists of
generating a detailed record of existing tourism attractions and facilities of the

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destination as well as identifying potential competing destinations. Based on this

perception, the UNWTO (1999) then recommends destinations to clarify the
aspirations of local communities from tourism activities. These steps aim to
develop a promotional strategy that seeks matching existing facilities with the
needs of the market in question and the objectives of its local community.
Nevertheless, the ONMT, as the main promoter of tourism in the country,
does not present a quantified assessment of its policy to professionals, whose
performance is already shattered by incoherent promotion policy and weak
marketing means especially for the seaside product for which competition is very
strong. To tackle this point, the office started lately to project its promotional
material for the destination Morocco using French media, according to the ONMT
this campaign will allow promoting the Moroccan destination in general to
achieve high performance and reaching in the French market. The priority markets
to conquer in Europe are UK, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and
Italy. The office carried out studies to assess these markets and evaluate new
tendencies, hotel industry actors must play along to win the concurrence.
In parallel, Buhalis (2000) and Prideaux and Cooper (2002) as cited in (Cox
and Wray 2011) note that there are multiple actors involved in the destination
marketing, and confirmed that destinations which are based on many products and
attributes require consequently many marketing activities. For this sake, an
efficient level of cooperation must be developed between private and public sector
actors‟ within the tourism sector. This integrality is considered to be critical in the
effectiveness and success of marketing strategy (McDonald 1999). In the same
sense, the registered relative weak occupation rates in accommodation units might
be due to the missing of this integrality in the marketing policy targeting customers
rather than the product-market relationship.
From the big new strategies followed by the ONMT is the creation of a new
digital directory (web-based) to go along the rise of internet in the tourism
industry. This strategy is not only for international tourism but part of it will be
dedicated to domestic tourism as well. This strategy is also based on the
modernization of ONMT‟s functioning mode, human/financial resources
management using advanced IT. Accordingly, the Tourism Ministry relies on
social media to promote sustainable tourism in the framework of the celebration of
the international year of sustainable tourism for development, and aims to sensitize
the community about the notion of sustainability touristic in the country.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The current situation of tourism promotion in Morocco requires a general

reorientation of the actual tourism policies. A deep understanding of the country‟s
tourism potential including its strengths and weaknesses compared to its direct and
indirect competitors in the area. The country promising potential is tied up by
various structural and management challenges. These challenges could be easily
overcome by innovative plans and retargeted interventions. Starting with a
complete and general diagnosis of the Moroccan tourism sector and highlighting

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the most affecting factors, its full potential, and the best practice that could be
carried out will be the best strategy. A key element here, after the identifying the
sector fully, may be the identification of similar practices in competing
destinations with similar potential.
Morocco must use competitive advantages over its direct competitors in the
area currently, such as Turkey, Cyprus, Tunisia and Egypt. Therefore, Moroccan
policymakers and tourism industry leaders ought to re-draw their management
strategy to reach the maximum exploitation of the country‟s tourism resources. In
this sense, many applicable steps could be taken into account like resetting the
tourism image of the country - portrayed through the official promotional
materials - via diversifying the offer to contain other promising products especially
outside the typical imperial cities of the country. There is a considerable touristic
potential in areas like the North of Morocco or the marginal areas of the Atlas with
splendid natural resource. If correctly managed, these „forgotten‟ regions could
make a huge difference in the performance of the Moroccan tourism sector.
Marketing of tourism in Morocco still sticks with the same destination image
created by first world agencies or worst from the colonial period. Even in some
recent promotional media, they concentrate on the product desert as the main
theme of the destination. The depiction of Moroccan tourism product in official
promotional media is still highly superficial. It does not show the real identity of
the destination. In some cases, the exhausting use of local culture elements for the
sake of tourism led to some kind of reluctance towards their own culture
compositions. For instance, in the city of Chaouen, the excessive exposition of
cultural artefacts covering all the blue beautiful walls of the city, making it all
about a large artefacts market. In this sense, from the image existing on the ground
it seems that the Moroccan public policies have led to centring the touristic activity
solely around the touristic product; totally neglecting the human factor. Absence of
empowering of the Moroccan Man within the destination make the tourism
activity appear as any normal trade with product and consumers.
This reorientation process requires a serious implication of all actors and
stakeholders implied in the marketing of the destination Morocco. Both public and
private sectors have to develop a shared vision that could function as a roadmap
for a new promotion strategy that empowers the full-diversified potential of the
country. To facilitate achieving this objective, some short- and long-term tactics
and strategies should be deployed. Such as directed investments at improving the
content and quality of the Moroccan promotional and marketing techniques and
channels; also, a cooperative effort between the private sector and the public sector
is needed in order to systematically promote the tourism and cultural image of
Morocco through hosting well-orchestrated international fairs and exhibitions.
Such a strategy should focus on improving the competitiveness of the different
aspects of Moroccan tourism as a standalone destination generally, and its interior
major sub-destination as the core competing product that will reset the country as a
leading destination in the region. Finally, the Moroccan government must
reconsider its commitment and national priority in relation to the tourism industry.

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