With state-of-the-art public and private hospitals, Morocco is poised to become a world leader in medical tourism. Besides having always been a popular tourist destination, given its unrivaled cultural history, today Morocco attracts international patients from all over the world thanks to its medical infrastructure. Indeed, Morocco is gaining in importance as a health tourism destination largely due to the strengthening of the country’s hospital sector. The Moroccan government has used a public-private partnership (PPP) model to modernize the medical sector and support the creation of state-of-the-art hospitals. Private hospitals have also invested heavily in their facilities,
Morocco is also privileged by its strategic positioning and its accessibility. More than 500,000 patients each year access the Moroccan health system in less than four hours of flight. In this context, improvements in the transport sector have also seen significant investments.
The coronavirus pandemic has devastated businesses, stagnated economies and all but halted travel to Morocco. The medical tourism industry has been among the hardest hit, raising questions about the industry’s chances of surviving the health crisis.
With declining demand from airlines, agency closures and widespread financial difficulties, medical tourism came to a screeching halt during the first months of the outbreak of the pandemic. Although there is now a slow recovery in demand for air flights since the gradual lifting of restrictions on coronaviruses, demand still remains extremely weak.
All of this comes as many governments have started adopting COVID-19 immunity passports as a prerequisite for entry into their countries. Healthcare actors are striving to reshape their strategies to adapt to current realities to connect with both local and international patients.
What is certain is that the market will depend on newer strategies and different models to attract medical tourists to Morocco again.
