São Paulo – Morocco and Palestine are taking part in the 44th Abav Expo, a tourism industry show in São Paulo, in a bid to attract more Brazilian tourists. Morocco welcomed slightly over 26,000 visitors from Brazil last year and is planning on opening an official tourism office – which it calls a delegation – in the country in 2017 to boost its promotion efforts. Palestine sees an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Brazilian tourists from Brazil each year.
The Moroccan stand in the expo is ample, centrally located, and its architecture resembles Moroccan buildings. The busy area showcases multiple possibilities for tourists in the Arab country, but the primary focus is on routes covering the imperial cities and the desert. The country has been investing in drawing in Brazilian tourists for a few years now, and it found out that they like these two routes.
“We realized Brazilians look for culture trips in Morocco, they want to see a different cultural identity,” the director-general of Morocco’s official tourism delegation to Lisbon, Abdellatif Achachi, told ANBA. The executive works out of the capital of Portugal and he also handles Brazil. The goal, however, is to have a dedicated delegation in Brazilian territory, and that could happen next year, Achachi said.
He explains that the fact that Morocco is a kingdom captures the attention of Brazilians. “Our history goes back 1,200 years,” he says, which is how long the royalty has ruled the country. He also mentions the current reign, under Mohammed VI, and the people’s strong connection with the king. The tourist route of imperial cities showcases the local history in Rabat, Fez, Meknès and Marrakech. It is the top-selling product from Brazilian tour operators, according to Achachi.
The desert also appeals to Brazilians. In Morocco, unlike other parts of the world, it’s not simply a vast tract of sand. “Our desert is full of people. You have cities, the people, oases, palm trees,” says the director. Achachi goes on to discuss other interesting routes that he claims will be explored after those two. One of them includes the historical cities with Portuguese heritages along the coast.
Two years ago, Morocco set a target to try to attract 100,000 Brazilians per year until 2020. It still stands, but Achachi is not sure if it can be fulfilled until the deadline. He explains that it was defined before the Brazilian economic crisis. But even with the current scenario of the local economy, Morocco was able to increase the number of Brazilian tourists in the first six months of 2016. There was a growth of 6% over the same period of the previous year. The increase of 2015 over 2014, however, was much higher at 17%, and the expansion in 2014 over 2013 was of 26%. “There was a slowdown, but it’s still positive”, says the executive.
This eagerness in attracting Brazilians is also to follow the expansion in Brazil of the local airline, the Royal Air Maroc. Starting at the end of October, the company will introduce in the route to the country a Boeing 787, which will be able to carry 273 passengers. The seat capacity of the airplane currently being used, the Boeing 767, is 240 passengers. The airline also increased the frequency of its weekly flights from three to four. “There will be one thousand more seats per week”, says Achachi.
Palestine
Palestine has become a traditional exhibitor at the Abav Expo fair. According to the coordinator of Touristic Promotion of Palestine’s Marketing and Media General Department, Sahar Rishmawi, who is in Brazil to attend the fair, the country has been to the fair since 1999. She says that Brazilians seek Palestine especially for religious tourism, to get to know the Holy Land, and visit traditional places, such as the Church of Nativity and Shepherds’ Fields in Bethlehem, or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
However, Palestine has been improving also in other types of tourism. It’s the case with what Rishmawi calls responsible tourism, in which travelers get to know the local situation and Palestinians’ day to day. She says that the country received a lot of Europeans with this purpose, with trips that include lunch visits to locals, bike routes to see local nature, attending in olive harvesting, and participation in local festivals, among others.
According to the coordinator, beyond religious tourism, these trips are offered to Brazilian operators by Palestine. In the Arab country’s stand at Abav Expo, Rishmawi’s Department is the country’s official representation. The private sector also makes use of the stand. Tourism is the most important source of revenues to Palestine, according to the coordinator. About the number of Brazilians that visit Palestine (between 40,000 and 50,000), she explains that it’s only an estimate and that there isn’t an exact number due to difficulties in the border. “It could be more, it could be less”, she says.
Abav Expo started on Wednesday (28) and will run through Friday (30) at Expo Center Norte.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani