Tourism Geography: Emerging Trends and Initiatives to Support Tourism in Morocco

Abstract

In both the industrialized and the developing world, tourism is increasingly being seen as a potential source for rapid economic growth and prosperity, and as one of the development instruments of a region. This potential has been recognized by the Moroccan government, and is currently accountable for the second largest contribution to the country’s GDP. In this paper, we provide an overview of international economic and sustainable standards to collect data on a national, regional, and local level. In addition, we highlight the importance of tourism geography and related emerging trends to address the objectives for marketing and operational management purposes. Therefore, we provide a state of the art on the utilization of spatio-temporal data to support tourism information needs. We especially emphasize the potential use of mobile phone data and social media feeds.