Alongside conventional tourism, Marrakech with its rural hinterland is the region best placed to attract a large number of visitors interested in ecotourism, adventure and educational travel. An essential sector of the national tourism offer alongside seaside and cultural tourism, rural tourism remains, however, dependent on the responsible, solidarity-based, fair and sustainable aspect. In this context, many professionals believe that this sector is still struggling to establish itself and that the multiple assets and untamed landscapes that the region abounds with are not exploited to good use, despite the enthusiasm of certain clienteles for this type of tourism, notably the French and the English. The tourist eager to discover the assets of the rural world is eager today to get involved in sustainable development, to contribute to the protection of the environment and to provide support to the populations of the localities visited. "What is extraordinary, today, is that most tourists are looking for interactivity with the local population and are trying to understand the national culture, insofar as it is in the rural world that they find this originality and this authenticity," explains a fierce defender of this sector who, in this sense, stressed the need to sensitise the populations of the rural world to be more welcoming. Especially, according to him, since there are tourists who want to contribute their stone to the building of local development.

Rural tourism is above all a matter for local actors. It encourages meetings and the sharing of the riches of the terroirs where it is practised with holidaymakers who have come to enjoy the fresh air of the countryside or the mountains. The development of this sector and its valorisation necessarily involves cleanliness and sanitation campaigns in the Douars and Souks, the fight against the growing phenomenon of harassment of tourists and the establishment of a regional umbrella organisation bringing together authorities, local elected officials, populations and tourism professionals. The promotion of rural tourism, which attracts between 170,000 and 200,000 visitors each year, also remains dependent on equipping villages with roads leading to inns and gîtes, electricity, drinking water and the sanitation network. Especially since the 2020 tourism vision places the issue of sustainable development and the environment at the top of its priorities, insofar as it provides for the capitalisation of natural and cultural assets and riches in favour of socio-economic growth.

Emphasis must be placed, in this regard, on the need to both exploit the significant potential available to the region and to sensitise tour operators and local populations to the importance of this sector. The development of rural tourism in the region is capable of further strengthening Marrakech's position as the Kingdom's leading tourist destination. It should be recalled that the 2020 strategic vision sets as an objective, in particular, to double the size of the sector, thus raising Morocco among the top 20 global tourist destinations by 2020.