Tourism

In the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, between 1 and 1.5 million Europeans visited Morocco.Tourism fell by 16.5% in 1990, when the Gulf War began. In 1994, Algeria closed its border with Morocco, and this caused the number of Algerian visitors to fall considerably; 70,000 visitors in 1994 and 13,000 in 1995, compared to 1.66 million in 1992 and 1.28 million in 1993. In 2008 there were 8 million tourist arrivals, compared with about 7.4 million in 2007 i.e. a 7% growth compared to 2007 30% of the tourists in 2008 were one of the 3.8 million Moroccans living abroad.

As of 2006, activity and adventure tourism in the Atlas and Rif Mountains are the fastest growth area in Moroccan tourism. These locations have excellent walking and trekking opportunities from late March to mid-November. The government is investing in trekking circuits.

Though there has been increase in tourism in Morocco, there has been no direct evidence that it impacts environment so far.