The Minister noted that tourism in Morocco has grown more that 10 per cent annually against an wordwide average of 5% and the sector had grown twice as fast than Morocco's GDP. He believes the only weakness in the sector has been that investment in the Plan Azur is less than it could have been.

The objective of the roadshow is to hold consultations with professionals and to give each region a special tourism policy appropriate to tourists' needs and capitalising on the best attributes of each region. He is looking to develop a long term development programme which is relevant to regionalisation policies.

He emphasised the need for innovation, creativity and consolidation.He wants to concentrate on a high quality of standards in hotels and their classification and upgrading. It was essential to avoid making the same errors as in the past. Each region must have its specific regional development policy. It will be important to allow tourism development plans to be more readily available to investors and to ensure greater added value to projects. It will be up to regional organisations like the CRT's and professional organisations to sieze this unique opportunity to ensure that tourism projects are profitable. The Minister will finalise a review of all tourism sites in the country.

The Minister will initially be visiting the 3 regions of Rabat- Salé Zemmour -Zaer, Marrakech the main tourism destination which has withstood the global tourism crisis so well and Agadir.