Property buyers from the UK are still keen on investing in countries such as Morocco, according to new figures.

Research by Foreign Currency Direct found that the overall number of foreign property purchases it handled went up by 8.2 per cent last year. The firm stated that much of the interest was centred on property for sale in Morocco, further highlighting its growing popularity with Britons.

The comments were made as part of a statement by the National Association of Estate Agents, which said the demand for investing abroad was still strong in the UK.

This comes after the BuyAssociation website highlighted Morocco as a potentially good option for British investors to consider.

Prospective buyers were told that property for sale in Morocco would be a good choice because it was growing in popularity as a holiday destination.

Source: Foreign Currency Direct

The Moroccan National Tourist Office (MNTO) will be increasing its advertising expenditure to attract more foreign visitors to the North African country.

Morocco was highlighted as a popular location among winter holidaymakers by TravelRepublic.co.uk, who said they were leaving the UK in order to enjoy warmer conditions elsewhere. Britons are the fastest growing tourist market for Morocco, which saw the number of visitors from the UK increase by a third in 2007 compared to 2006 (source: MNTO).

Morocco plans to encourage 10 million tourists by 2010 and was currently pushing tourism development throughout the country to make this possible.

Morocco will be starting work on the first high-speed trains in North Africa and the Middle East, connecting the Mediterranean coast to the Sahara Desert in 2007.

The trains will run at 300 kilometres per hour, from Tangier to Agadir via Marrakech and from Casablanca to Oujda.

Subject to the plans being approved, the 1,500km of track may take until 2030 to complete at a cost of around 25 billion dirhams.

Morocco’s tourism industry’s income has reached a new record, after increasing 25.8 percent during the first nine months of the year, the ministry of tourism said.

The ministry said income hit a record €3.67bn (about $4.5bn), while passenger numbers for the same period had increased 9 percent.

Morocco has estimated that tourism earnings would be between €4.1bn and €4.5bn, against €3.7bn in 2005, said the ministry.

It added that tourist numbers would reach 6.5 million for 2006, up from last year’s 5.8 million visitors.

The North African country’s bed occupancy rate had also improved from 49 percent to 50 percent during this year.

Morocco plans to encourage 10 million tourists by 2010 and was currently pushing tourism development throughout the country to make this possible.

Rabat – Morocco’s efforts to grow tourism received another boost after Qatar signed an agreement to invest $335mn in tourism projects in the North African state.

Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company would invest the money in building three hotels, adding 3 000 new beds, and a golf course in Tangiers, the Moroccan news agency (MAP) reported on Friday.

The deal was signed between Moroccan officials and chairman Ahmed Hassan Al Ansari. - Business in Africa Online.

European Union Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has said that the EU is considering giving Morocco a more advanced status in its relations with the Union.

"We already have a very, very close relationship with Morocco, and we're studying giving them even more advanced status," she told the latest issue of the weekly magazine "Newsweek International" which ran a four-page article on Morocco's booming economy and reforms.

Newsweek quoted Morocco's Prime Minister Driss Jettou as saying: "We want to be the southern rib of Europe." "In 10 years, we will be a fully-fledged partner in the EU family," he predicts. "When Romano Prodi [the former president of the European Commission] proposed his European Neighborhood Policy in 2001, he meant that we should benefit from all the advantages of the EU - just without the institutions.”

Thanks to the free-trade agreements now being negotiated in Brussels and Rabat, Morocco, adds Newsweek, will soon take a big step in that direction. According to the EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, Europe also aims to bring Morocco increasingly into the fold on major political discussions too, including immigration, social issues, foreign affairs and terrorism.

Foreign direct investment into Morocco doubled last year to €1.7 billion (not including capital investment in property), with the majority coming from Europeans. Trade between Europe and Morocco was up 35% last year, and the value of Moroccan exports to Europe—including more high-value manufactured items like automobile parts, electrical cables and software than ever before—doubled to €16 billion.

According to Newsweek, Morocco's booming economy and improved living standards show that even without the “member” title, there are palpable benefits to linking up with Europe.

Source: www.moroccotimes.com

Work on the Arab world's first high-speed train — stretching from the Mediterranean to the door of the Sahara desert — could begin next year, the head of Morocco's rail company said.

The trains would travel at up to 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour, slashing times from Tangier in the north via Marrakesh to Agadir in the south, and from Casablanca on the Atlantic to Oujda on the Algerian border.

"Marrakesh to Tangier in two and a half hours — it's as if the country's shrinking," rail operator ONCF's managing director Mohamed Rabie Khlie told Reuters in an interview.

"A high-speed rail network will put us in the rail industry's big league."

If the plans are approved, the 1,500 kilometres of track may take until 2030 to complete at a cost of around 25 billion dirhams ($2.87 billion), Khlie said.

Once financing for the new lines is sealed, engineering work could begin in the second half of 2007, Khlie said.

Journeys from Casablanca to Marrakesh could be cut to 1 hour and 20 minutes from over three hours, and from the capital Rabat to Tangier to 1 hour and 30 minutes from 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Source: www.usatoday.com

Morocco is a strategic market for the airline company Ryanair said the Sales and Marketing Director for Southern Europe, Bridget Dowling.

In an interview published Tuesday by the Moroccan daily Aujourd'hui Le Maroc, Dowling stressed that the new Ryanair lines between Morocco and Europe will be operational by late October, adding that seven connections will be launched from Oujda to Marseille against three from Fez.

“The integration of Morocco, with Croatia and Serbia, in the common zone of European aviation is also an encouraging factor,” she said, stressing that the plan of the Moroccan National Office of Airports (ONDA) aiming at encouraging the use of secondary airports corresponds to the company's policy, which has always made regional platforms its credo.

Asked about a possible extension of Ryanair activities to other African and Maghreban countries, Dowling indicated that for the moment the company focuses more on Europe and the countries which, like Morocco, form part of the common zone of European aviation.

However, she emphasised that in the future "nothing is excluded, provided that conditions allow it".

Source: Morocco Times