The schedule is running out. As of December 8, 2025, the travel industry, a crucial link in the tourism distribution chain, is facing a significant setback. A limited quota of group tickets for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has not been allocated, despite commitments made last fall by the tourism and football authorities. For a sector that relies on proactive marketing, this lack of coordination risks reducing the tournament's economic benefits, particularly for matches outside Morocco, according to a Casablanca-based operator.
The feeling of a disconnect between expectations and reality is shared throughout the industry. Two months earlier, a meeting held in Casablanca had laid the groundwork for a structured collaboration. Agencies had been assured that a certain volume of tickets would be reserved for them, provided they submitted their requirements in advance, explains our source.
For Mohamed Semlali, president of the National Federation of Travel Agencies of Morocco (FNAVM), the lack of implementation of these commitments now places the sector in a shadow zone even as demand for packages combining accommodation, transfers and access to matches accelerates as the tournament approaches.
He noted that this meeting, held with the Moroccan National Tourist Office and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, was intended to present the operational plan for the competition and to mobilize all professionals involved. The agencies, directly contacted, had been asked to prepare packages designed to welcome African fans and international visitors.
According to Mohamed Semlali, the officials present had assured that tickets would be specially allocated to the network of travel agencies, provided that they communicated their requests early enough to allow for early distribution.
None of the announced measures have materialized. Mohamed Semlali explains that despite repeated approaches to the relevant authorities, no allocation has been granted and no clarification has been provided. The only responses received have been to ask the sector to wait, even though the time required for commercialization has already largely elapsed.
This situation, he continued, deprives agencies of the opportunity to meet a genuine demand. Many clients, both Moroccan and foreign, had requested packages including tickets, but none of these bookings could be confirmed due to a lack of available tickets.
This observation was also made by a second Casablanca-based operator. He noted that last July, several agencies were accompanied by the Moroccan National Tourist Office on organized tours to Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. These operations primarily targeted the African diaspora, considered one of the segments most likely to travel to follow the competition. Upon their return to Morocco, the participants were invited to a working seminar in Casablanca, in the presence of the National Federation of Hotels, to finalize the marketing strategies.
The operator assures that during this session, it was explicitly asked whether a stock of tickets (for the matches of Morocco as for other matches) would be made available to the concessionary agencies, in order to be able to program packages and market them with a payment deadline.
The response surprised all the participants. They were told that the Morocco matches were already sold out. He explains that they were offered tickets to African national teams as an alternative, a solution deemed disconnected from the needs of the local market. “We insisted,” he recounts. “At the very least, we must be allowed to sell tickets for the Morocco matches. We even offered to take 25,000 tickets, with the possibility for the organizer to reclaim any unsold ones. Nothing was accepted.”
A blockage that penalizes an entire profession
According to our source, this blockage directly penalizes a profession that had nevertheless anticipated the commercial effort necessary for the success of the AFCON."We were ready to recruit additional staff. But we still had to be able to include match tickets in that, otherwise no package is viable," he laments.
This situation reflects an unjustified exclusion of an essential link in the tourism chain, at the very moment when the travel industry was striving to prepare to welcome an exceptional influx of visitors, notes this operator.
It operates in an industry whose contribution to the national and international economy continues to grow. Tourism, in 2025, is on a trajectory of sustained growth and could, by the end of December, approach or even exceed the threshold of 20 million visitors.
The first shipments from Africa and Europe are already starting to be felt as the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations approaches, while the purchasing system implemented by CAF continues to ramp up. This context should have strengthened the momentum of the entire sector; instead, it highlights the limitations of a distribution system that is still struggling to keep pace with the scale of demand. Clarification from CAF would be welcome, our source concludes.
