Aviation liberalization as a means to promote international tourism: lessons from the EU-Morocco market

This paper analyzes the extent to which the liberalization of the airline market between the EU and Morocco has led to significant changes in both air services and leisure travel, thus contributing to the Moroccan tourist master plan to attract 10 million tourists. Liberalization has led to a large expansion of regular air services in terms of the number of seats and routes supplied but also to a decrease in charter business. The low-cost airlines are the main player in this move. International leisure mobilities to Morocco have also strongly increased, although the relation with air transport liberalization is less clearly established. The increase concerns both Moroccans living abroad and foreign tourists. Air transport has increased its market share despite the significant decrease in the number of tour operator packages sold.The increase is particularly large among Moroccan citizens living abroad, suggesting new habits with regard to long-distance mobilities.