Essaouira will be equipped with a plan intended to further develop this tourist destination over the next three years, indicated the Director General of the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT), Abderrafie Zouiten. "It has been agreed to set up a committee of tourism professionals that is recognised and representative and which will have the mission, alongside local authorities, elected officials and the ONMT, to put in place a plan spanning the next three years with the objective of further developing tourist flows to this city," he added during a press briefing last Saturday in Essaouira. During this press briefing, held at the end of a meeting with more than a hundred tourism professionals, Mr. Zouiten specified that this plan will be focused on several points, notably the development of air routes to Essaouira, communication and promotion, distribution and other aspects related to events. Concerning the air transport component, the Director General of the ONMT made it known that the low-cost company "Transavia" will add a third weekly frequency between Paris and Essaouira starting from 1 November, adding that an air link between the City of Trade Winds and London should be inaugurated starting from April 2015.
He also indicated that projects for new air lines between Essaouira and destinations in Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany are under study, just like a project with Royal Air Maroc (RAM) for it to provide four weekly frequencies between Casablanca and the City of Trade Winds.
The ONMT official noted that this city, which must remain a destination in its own right, is called upon at the same time to take advantage of the boom in Marrakech, especially its airport served by dozens of international airlines from several countries around the world.
On this occasion, André Azoulay nevertheless stressed: “that with or without the RAM, the destination fully intends to keep the ambition that its long history allows it”. That is all well and good, but how to concretise such a project without the unavoidable participation of the RAM?
