About 100 Israeli tourists who arrived in Morocco on the first direct commercial flight between the two countries were greeted with dates, cakes and mint during a welcome ceremony.
Seven months later normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco, this first flight started frequent flights. Israir operates two to three commercial flights between Tel Aviv and Marrakech each week. The Israeli national company El Al plans to plan five flights a week to the cities of Marrakech and Casablanca.
These flights will facilitate the journey of 50,000 to 70,000 Israeli tourists who travel to the Kingdom each year. Until now, they had to stay in other countries.
These direct flights and the normalization of relations would enable Morocco to receive more Israeli tourists, especially since the 700,000 Israelis of Moroccan descent have often had very strong ties with their country of origin. Rabat expects 200,000 Israeli travelers per year from 2022, if the pandemic does not complicate the situation.
Direct flights should also facilitate business travel, especially as if the connections were officially disconnected had links been maintained. According to a bulletin from the French-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, quoted by AFP last year, Morocco is one of the five most important African customers in Israel.
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