UAE's national airline Etihad Airways has announced the “1,000 Chinese Visitors to Morocco” campaign with Beijing Yougo World International Travel Service  (Uniway), the largest Chinese tour operator specialising in outbound tourism to the Middle East and Africa (MEA).

Etihad will also partner with the Moroccan National Tourist Office to support plans to attract 100,000 Chinese visitors each year by 2018.

This is helped by the visa exemption policy for Chinese tourists from 1 June 2016. Uniway expects to carry 1,000 Chinese travellers with Etihad Airways to Morocco between February and June 2017.
 
“We are delighted to see the obvious increase in demand and the great interest from Chinese tourists to visit Morocco. This is attributable to the visa relaxation policy granted by the Morocco government.” said Daniel Barranger, the senior vice president of global sales, Etihad Airways.
 
The UAE government started giving visa on arrival to Chinese visitors from November this year, thus positioning Abu Dhabi as a perfect stopover for the visitors before transiting to Morocco.

Etihad Airways operates daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, and a twice-weekly service between Abu Dhabi and Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. Taking Etihad Airways’ non-stop services between China and Abu Dhabi, Chinese tourists from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong can conveniently connect at the airline’s hub in Abu Dhabi to their final destination in Morocco.

"They can spend a couple days enjoying Abu Dhabi, a modern and vibrant Arabian city offering a rich variety of remarkable leisure activities to tourists," stated Barranger.

Uniway chief executive He Zhenbin pointed out that the number of Chinese leisure travellers to the MEA has increased tremendously in recent years.

"Etihad is the airline of choice for the Chinese customer offering convenient connections, dedicated inflight service, personalised products, as well as competitive prices," he noted.  
 
Rabia Talhimet, the spokesperson of the Moroccan National Tourist Office, said: "We are confident that we will be able to achieve the goal of attracting 100,000 Chinese visitors each year by 2018."

"The Moroccan National Tourist Office will strengthen its cooperation with Etihad to serve the Chinese tourism market still further. In the meantime, we will speed up the readiness of the infrastructure, including our digital presence in China as well as ensuring the readiness of the local hospitality industry to meet Chinese tourists’ needs," added Talhimet.-TradeArabia News Service