Dakhla, the "pearl of the south" nestled in the heart of the Sahara, has now earned its stripes as a high-profile destination for seaside and ecological tourism in Morocco, a very promising niche that counts more and more Moroccan and foreign followers who share a passion for nature and a taste for adventure.
Once an isolated and dreary city, Dakhla has undergone a transformation as dazzling as it is impressive over the last two decades, thanks to several development projects that have helped change the face of the city and make it the standard-bearer for tourism in the southern regions.
Dakhla is one of the few Moroccan tourist destinations to offer a unique and exquisite mix of golden sandy beach and crystal-clear water, white dunes, blue sky, and excellent quality sunshine for the better part of the year. Enough to satisfy the most demanding tourists who are increasingly numerous in falling under the charm of this wonder of nature.
Endowed with a mild climate and 667 km of coastline, the city also seduces professionals and amateurs of board sports from all four corners of the world, notably windsurfing, windsurfing, and kitesurfing, for which the city hosts the first stage of the world championship, the "Dakhla Kitesurf World Cup", every year in March.
Another pride of the city: the Dakhla Sea and Desert Festival, which has attracted thousands of national and international tourists since 2007 who come to appreciate this rare communion between sea, desert, and nature that now makes the brand image of the pearl of the south.
On a heavenly beach, by moonlight, a rich, diversified, and highly entertaining programme is offered to festival-goers, combining local, oriental, and western music, competitions, and windsurfing and kitesurfing workshops. A magical and intoxicating experience that they cannot have anywhere else.
As part of its plan to develop the tourism sector in the city, the Ministry of Tourism seeks to capitalise on Dakhla's potential by focusing on two future niches: water sports and eco-tourism.
Alongside the Kitesurf World Championship and the Dakhla Festival, two events that continue to gain notoriety, the first niche was reinforced by the recent establishment of the "Dakhla Attitude" station (about 35 km from the city of Dakhla), "a sport and nature destination to which the Ministry of Tourism will grant particular attention," according to the words of the Minister of Tourism, Lahcen Haddad.
Located between the desert and the ocean, Dakhla Attitude aims to be the paradise for fans of water activities, seafood tasting, and desert hikes.
"Today, we really want to make Dakhla an exclusive destination of international reach, turned towards sport and nature," stressed the minister who kicked off the 1st edition of La Saharienne, a women's and solidarity sports raid organised in Dakhla from 17 to 24 February.
Eco-tourism should see remarkable growth after the upcoming establishment of an Eco Resort, a mega-project endowed with one billion dirhams, which was the subject of a memorandum of understanding signed in May 2013 between the Ministry of Tourism and the Moroccan Society of Tourism Engineering (SMIT).
This infrastructure will offer visitors a luxurious and environmentally friendly setting, with accommodation, catering, and entertainment venues focused on the theme of the desert. Thanks to this project, the accommodation capacity in Dakhla should increase from the current 800 beds to nearly 4,000 beds, which will help support the increase in tourist arrivals (from 11,185 in 2011 to 13,120 in 2012).
With its exotic and varied natural landscapes, its hospitable population, and infrastructure that continues to develop to offer a welcoming and comfortable setting for tourists, Dakhla does not leave international tourism professionals indifferent.
Thus, the city hosted, from last Wednesday to Friday, a delegation of European tourism operators who came to prospect the potential of the pearl of the Moroccan Sahara, via a special Paris-Dakhla flight chartered by the Moroccan National Tourism Office (ONMT).
More than 160 people from France, Scandinavia, Italy, and the United Kingdom, including representatives of tour operators and journalists, took part in this trip to promote the Dakhla destination and visited in particular the city's beaches, the craft centre, the small museum of Saharan Morocco, the conference centre, tourist establishments, and the Souks.
