From The Province

Spared the violence and instability of its North African neighbours, Morocco is looking to lure even more tourists to its beaches, cities and mountains to make up for those kept home by Europe’s economic crisis.

Morocco hasn’t had anywhere near the catastrophic drop in tourism experienced by once-popular destinations such as Egypt and Tunisia, both of which are going through chaotic and at times violent post-revolutionary phases. Still, Morocco’s numbers are flagging, Tourism Minister Lahcen Haddad said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.

More than half of Morocco’s 9.3 million visitors in 2011 were French or Spanish, but those groups arrived in smaller numbers that before and stayed fewer nights due to financial crises in their nations. To offset those losses, Haddad said Morocco wants to attract more visitors from Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

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