After the tourism sector was affected globally by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to encourage eco-tourism, the people in charge of this sector worked on developing lists and regulations for prices starting from 300 dirhams ($30) to 1200 dirhams ($120).
A number of regions in the Middle and High Atlas Mountains are witnessing an increasing number of tourists, especially after the growing awareness of the need to preserve the environment in light of the climatic problems that the world is witnessing.
The Middle Atlas Mountains have become among the top destinations favored by foreign visitors, who are looking for stunning landscapes, warm baths, traditional hotel units and natural cuisine.
Among those destinations is the city of Ifrane, which is located in the middle of the Middle Atlas region and is called “Little Switzerland”, due to its charming beauty, scenic landscapes and calmness, as it annually attracts thousands of visitors who flock to ski and climb as well.
Pandemic and ecotourism
Experts such as Zubair Bouhout, a researcher in the field of tourism and a former official in the tourism sector, believe that the effects of the Corona pandemic have strengthened the trend towards ecotourism.
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, Bouhout added that ecotourism is “one of the components of the tourism product in various parts of the world, but with the crisis that the world has experienced due to the Corona epidemic, the demand for this type of tourism has increased.”
And he indicated that “Corona imposed several measures, such as respecting social distancing, which prompted a group of people wishing to travel to search for natural spaces that have large areas and ensure social distancing.”
He pointed out that Morocco has become a pioneer in the field of eco-tourism, given its great diversity of beaches, dunes, oases and mountains.
“Besides diversity, Morocco’s proximity to Europe made the share of ecotourism good for European visitors,” he added.
For his part, the director of the Moroccan Association for Biodiversity, Abdallah Araz, considered ecotourism as one of the promising areas, especially those related to the mountains.
In an interview with Sky News Arabia, Araz said, “Mountain tourism is proving an increasing presence and will have a future in the ecotourism map as a whole.”
The director of the Moroccan Association for Biodiversity pointed to his work with Moroccan institutions in the Atlas to establish cooperatives in the regions of Al Haouz, Demnat and Azilal, to promote eco-tourism in those regions.
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