Taza 2030: Towards a Tourism Morocco Integrating All Territories

Taza should not be considered a peripheral destination compared to the Kingdom's major tourist hubs. Investment: Valuing local heritage and promoting a development dynamic based on culture, arts, and innovation. This is the ambition of the second edition of the "Memory and Living Arts" Festival, which opened on Friday, under the theme "Taza 2030: Taza Reinvents Itself". Morocco continues to strengthen its tourism potential. At a time when the country is preparing for the 2030 deadline and aims to consolidate its position among major international tourist destinations, a strategic question arises: how can we ensure that this dynamic benefits the entire Kingdom, including territories whose tourism potential remains insufficiently exploited? In Taza, this question takes on a particular dimension. Natural heritage, mountain landscapes, forests, caves, local traditions, and the richness of the terroirs... this territory brings together the ingredients of a unique destination. However, like many emerging territories, its challenge lies not only in the existence of remarkable resources. It consists of transforming these resources into economic projects, productive investments, and sustainable jobs. It is in this direction that the Moroccan Society of Tourism Engineering (SMIT) focused its intervention during the festival on memory and living art, for a cultural renaissance on Saturday, October 17, 2026. SMIT explained that the Kingdom's tourism development cannot be measured solely by the performance of its most established destinations. Its success must also be judged by its ability to reveal new territories, diversify the national offering, and broaden the geography of investments. The ambition is to build a Morocco with multiple tourist destinations, but never a two-speed Morocco. As SMIT explains, Taza should not be considered a peripheral destination compared to the Kingdom's major tourist hubs. It should be seen as a territory with its own competitive advantages, its potential markets, and its own development trajectory. Thus, the challenge is not to replicate the models of Marrakech, Agadir, or Tangier in Taza. It is to build a tourism proposition that is consistent with the territory's identity, its reception capacity, its natural resources, and the aspirations of its population. Taza, a destination to be revealed Taza is rich in unprecedented heritage. The Friouato cave, the forest and mountain landscapes, as well as cultural and gastronomic resources, all serve as foundations for imagining a differentiating tourism offering. Ecotourism, hiking, discovery tourism, nature accommodation, rural experiences, crafts, and the valorisation of local products: these activities can contribute to enriching the national offering while opening up new economic prospects for local communities. But the transition from potential to destination requires real tourism engineering. For SMIT, a natural site does not automatically become a tourist product. Access must be organised, services structured, accommodation possibilities created, and experiences designed to retain visitors. Sites must also be linked, coherent circuits built, and Taza integrated into regional and national tourist flows. Transforming potential into investment Tourism development must be based on a concrete ability to generate projects, improve their maturity, and create the conditions for their realisation. In Taza, this approach involves working to build a portfolio of opportunities adapted to the territory, from human-scale accommodation projects to leisure activities, nature experiences, and heritage valorisation initiatives. According to SMIT, the digitalisation of investment is also an important lever. Through its digital tools, particularly its tourism investment platform, SMIT has made opportunities at the territorial level more visible, facilitating their geolocation and improving the connection between project leaders and investors. The objective is to reduce the gap between a territory that possesses resources and a territory capable of presenting clear, structured, and attractive opportunities to the market. Territorial equity begins with access to investment The issue of sustainable development is not limited to environmental preservation. It also concerns the ability of territories to access funding, skills, economic networks, and entrepreneurial opportunities. For Taza, this means fostering the emergence of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises, supporting young project leaders, promoting female entrepreneurship, and facilitating the integration of cooperatives and local producers into the tourism value chain. The benefits must extend beyond accommodation establishments. They must benefit guides, restaurateurs, artisans, transporters, farmers, and all the services that contribute to the visitor experience. SMIT explained that in this perspective, several support mechanisms for tourism entrepreneurship, including Moukawala Siyahia, have been put in place as a lever to facilitate project maturation and encourage the creation of activities. The real challenge is to create an ecosystem where tourism investment generates local income, sustainable jobs, and new prospects for the population. Investing in Taza means investing in a more balanced Morocco Model: The case of Taza ultimately refers to a question that goes beyond the province's borders: that of the tourism development model that Morocco wishes to consolidate for the coming decades. A model in which international competitiveness does not oppose territorial cohesion. A model in which the protection of natural heritage is an economic advantage. A model in which investment contributes to broadening the prospects of the population rather than concentrating opportunities in the already attractive hubs. It is in this articulation between attractiveness, investment, and inclusion that SMIT intends to focus its action. The success of Taza 2030 will therefore not only be measured by the number of visitors welcomed or the accommodation capacity created. It will be measured, according to SMIT, by the territory's ability to sustainably transform its resources into wealth, its projects into businesses, and its ambitions into jobs. 2030: a deadline, but above all a method Opportunities: The prospect of 2030 offers Morocco a major opportunity to accelerate the modernisation of its tourism offering, strengthen its competitiveness, and expand investment opportunities. For Taza, the challenge is to seize this dynamic without making events the ultimate goal of development. The destination must be able to attract visitors before, during, and after 2030, thanks to a sustainable offering, the quality of its services, and the uniqueness of its experiences. This requires an integrated approach involving territorial authorities, local communities, economic actors, investors, and national institutions. SMIT can contribute to this dynamic by mobilising its expertise to identify priority projects, structure opportunities, and connect project leaders with financial and technical partners. Receive the latest news from Aujourd'hui Le Maroc directly on WhatsApp