New alliance to develop excellence in the hotel industry in Morocco
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Casablanca, December 20, 2019 - OCP, ONCF, and the Hassan II Fund for Economic and Social Development are joining forces to create a National Hotel Pole in Morocco. This unique alliance aims at promoting high-end hotel excellence, and at providing a showcase for Morocco’s heritage and know-how, furthering the attractiveness of the country and its reputation worldwide.
This alliance falls fully in line with the High Royal Directives concerning restructuring measures for certain public enterprises. These measures will allow the public sector to consolidate its investment capacities, through consistent and harmonious sectoral plans, and the launching of new productive investment programs, with job-creating opportunities.
The creation of a national hotel pole of excellence
To accompany the development of a sector with high-growth potential and significant job opportunities for the Moroccan economy, OCP, ONCF and the Hassan II Fund announce an alliance in the high-end hotel sector, creating a major player in the sector.
These major Moroccan economic actors are combining their expertise to build a National Hotel Pole, whose core mission will be to strengthen and develop the Moroccan hotel excellence, promoting the attractiveness of the country and its international reputation.
This Pole will include Moroccan historic hotels, owned and developed until now by ONCF. These include “La Mamounia” in Marrakech, which will celebrate its centenary in 2023 and the “Jamai Palace”, an emblematic hotel in the city of Fez founded in 1879. It will also include “Le Michlifen” in Ifrane with its mountain golf course, unique in Africa, and the “Marchica Lagoon Resort”, the new flagship hotel in the Oriental region.
This partnership will develop these national gems, while maintaining a 100% Moroccan governance and generating new growth opportunities in the high-end hotels sector.
A project serving regional development and employment
This alliance brings together all the necessary expertise to support a strategic and highly expanding sector in Morocco, and to ensure its sustainable growth.
OCP is consolidating its investment strategy in the development and professionalization of the Moroccan hotel industry, a sector in which the company is already committed due to the hotel assets it holds in the regions in which it operates, and which it intends to develop in its urban planning projects and new cities development.
This new Hotel Pole will therefore complement the existing activities with a high-end offer, in line with OCP's commitment to professionalizing this strong-growth, job-creating sector through a new training course dedicated to hotel trades at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, in partnership with the most prestigious international institutions.
Following its mission to support large-scale projects aimed at the development of Morocco, the Hassan II Fund is continuing its support of the tourism sector, to which it already contributes financially. The Fund also acts as an investor in the development of the lagoon site in Marchica, which includes luxury hotel resorts.
Furthermore, the Hassan II Fund is involved in the preservation of the Morocco’s architectural heritage, notably through its support for the transformation of ksours & kasbahs into luxury hotels, and in the rehabilitation of eight Medinas.
As member of this alliance, it will also play an advisory role with regard to the long-term development strategy for investments in this strategic hotel sector of which Morocco is so proud.
ONCF will contribute to the success of the alliance by continuing its support of this large-scale project, particularly by sharing its historic know-how in luxury hotels, the excellence of which was recently recognized internationally, when “La Mamounia” was voted "Best Hotel in the World" by the magazine Condé Nast Traveler in 2018.
Within the framework of the alliance, the transfer by ONCF of its hotel assets is fully in line with its strategic roadmap for enhancing Morocco’s heritage, and it will allow it to redeploy its investment capacities in the railway sector.
