Microsoft Word Journal of policy research

TOURISM
 
POLICY
 
FORDIST
 
PHASE
Liberal
Economic
Indicative
planning
Inefficient
tourism
administration
+
The
Medjen
Public
investment
Economic
Adjustment
in
1990s
Tourism
Mass
Strong
government
intervention

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12
Table 3. Analysis of the components of tourism policy in Morocco. Fordist phase
3.2. Post-Fordist phase
With the arrival of Mohammed VI to the throne in 1999 there was a change of direction in Morocco’s 
tourism policy. Tourism became one of the mainstays of the country’s economic development, and the state sees 
turning Morocco into a tourist destination as one of its main goals. To achieve this, the public powers 
approached this tourism development in a classic way: creating a number of strategic tourism plans, attracting 
international investment, liberalising air space, financial incentives and enabling the creation of large 
holiday/real-estate resorts aimed primarily at the European market (Chahine, 2010; Almeida, 2011). Attracting 
international investment, both from Europe and the Persian Gulf, played a very important role in this process, 
funding hotel accommodation and to a large extent the residential tourism. In this phase of tourism policy, the 
state became an agent for investment targeting international capital and acted as guarantor for the construction 
of the large resorts and tourism infrastructure. Equally, the government implemented significant deregulation of 
tourism-related economic sectors, particularly aviation, and spent large sums on infrastructure for the tourist 
industry.
In 2001 an important gathering of the tourist industry was held in Marrakesh, in which a major national 
tourism plan was unveiled: