Morocco hopes its better ties with Israel and centuries-old Jewish history will help some of the tourism trade it lost to the global pandemic by increasing the number of Israeli visitors once and for all. flights begin next month.
The two countries agreed in December to resume diplomatic ties and reschedule direct flights – part of a treaty that broke the United States that also includes Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
“I was afraid to go earlier, because it is an Arab country, even though I was told that tours were good. Now that there is peace, I think I can go fearless, ”said retired Israeli teacher Rivka Sheetrit, 69, who wants to see where her parents once lived and whose ancestors were buried.
“When the skies open I plan to go,” she said.
Morocco was home to one of the largest and wealthiest Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East for centuries until Israel was founded in 1948. When they fled or were expelled from many of Arab countries, about a quarter of a million left Morocco for Israel from 1948–1964.
Today there are only about 3,000 left in Morocco, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis claim some Moroccan ancestry.
In addition to other countries in the region where the issue is often taboo, Morocco has in recent years tried to recognize the place of a Jew in its history. In 2010, they launched a program to restore synagogues, Jewish cemeteries and heritage sites, and restored the original names of some Jewish neighborhoods.
3 צפייה בגלריה
National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and former White House adviser Jared Kushner will meet Moroccan King Mohammed VI
(Photo: GPO)
While the numbers of Israeli visitors appear to be small compared to the pre-COVID-19 tourism flow to Morocco, it could help a region suffering from the pandemic.
Tourism minister Nadia Fettah Alaoui has said she expects 200,000 Israeli visitors in the first year after the resumption of direct flights. That compares with about 13 million foreign tourists each year before the outbreak. Tourism revenue fell 53.8% to 36.3 billion dirhams ($ 3.8 billion) in 2020.
In the beautiful Moroccan port city of Essaouira, once home to a large Jewish community and still a place for several important streams, tourism businesses are poised for a boom.
Ayoub Souri, who owns a woodworking shop near a Jewish museum, expects business to thrive: “We look forward to getting more Jewish tourists after the contract normalization, “he said.
Optimistic
Although a small number of Israeli tourists are already coming to Morocco, many have been put off by the lack of direct flights and diplomatic ties. The head of the Israeli liaison office in Rabat, which reopened after the deal, said he expected flights to begin next month.
“This is the main reason why the number of Israeli tourists is going up dramatically,” said the head of liaison, David Govrin.
Morocco’s tourism promotion office has commissioned a study on attracting tourists from Israel.
Henri Abizker, a Jewish community leader and businessman in Rabat who owns a travel agency organizing tours for Israelis, said he was even more optimistic about the numbers, predicting that up to 400,000.
Morocco is attractive because of its unique Jewish history as home to pilgrimage sites, attracting tourism that can be beneficial to particular operators.
“The younger generations tend to be more liberal, but rectangular development meets Kosher ‘s requirements,” he said.
In Israel, Haim Peretz, an Israeli of Moroccan Jewish descent who now works as a tour guide, said prospective tourists were mostly waiting for direct flights.
“We expect, in principle, that the demand for tourism in Morocco will grow,” he said.