This agreement is a new outcome of the major effort to promote Morocco as a destination on the Israeli market undertaken by the ONMT since the reopening of the Moroccan sky in February 2022.
Israel’s second largest airline is thus committed to setting up, from September, a direct Tel Aviv-Essaouira line offering 11,000 seats. The agreement also covers the doubling of the capacity of Arkia Airlines to Marrakech from David-Ben-Gurion International airport in Tel Aviv, to reach 22,000 seats. The three flights to Morocco will be operated by Airbus 321. Through this partnership, an offer of 33,000 seats will be injected by Arkia to Morocco.
Managing Director of the ONMT, Adel El Fakir, said that “this partnership is part of the positive dynamic initiated by the ONMT for the Israeli market. The increases at the end of June 2023 from the Israeli market are significant and we are aware of the sustainability of this dynamic through the multiplication of direct connections with the various Moroccan tourist destinations”.
For his part, Arkia’s Managing Director, Gad Tepper, expressed his enthusiasm at the idea of opening the road to Essaouira to Israelis who will be able to appreciate the culture, the historical places and the spectacular views.
To promote the launch of the new Tel Aviv-Essaouira direct line, a joint ONMT-Arkia multi-channel communication mechanism will be deployed on several media: TV, press, display and digital. The objective is to communicate around the tourist assets of the destination of Essaouira and to highlight the history, the memory and the Jewish-Moroccan culture that abound in the city of the Alizés.
Israeli tourist arrivals continue to grow. In 2022, nearly 75,000 tourists visited Morocco, up 87% compared to 2019. At the end of June 2023, Morocco’s airports welcomed nearly 39,000 Israeli travelers, up 35% compared to the same period of 2022 and by 146% compared to June 2019.
These new lines will inject new momentum into this trend, thereby encouraging tourism and the economy. Light In Action, the strategy initiated by the ONMT therefore continues to bear fruit, particularly in the field of air transport and the opening of point-to-point lines.
