In Morocco, after two years of suspension linked to the health crisis, Operation Marhaba will be relaunched this summer. It benefits from a great mobilization in anticipation of strong demand for this summer.
Millions of Moroccans abroad, especially in Europe, should go on vacation to the country via Spain, thanks to this highly anticipated operation. Remember that in 2019 during the last edition, 3 million travelers made the crossing.
Marhaba 2022 will take place between mid-June and mid-September. Knowing that Eid el-Adha is set around July 10, the operation is all the more popular this year. In Morocco and Spain, we are already anticipating the exceptional demand from travelers.
Operation Marhaba 2022: unpublished figures
The two countries are deploying major resources and organizing themselves upstream. This Thursday, May 5, a commission also met in Rabat, reports the site medias24.com. In the presence of the Moroccan and Spanish authorities, the commission discussed in particular the titanic logistics linked to the transport of passengers.
Five Spanish ports participate in the Marhaba operation: Motril, Almeria, Tarifa, Barcelona, and Algeciras. They rally the Moroccan cities of Tangier, Nador, and Al Hoceima.
The system put in place is unprecedented. Médias24.com tells us that 32 ferries will ensure 572 weekly rotations and will be able to transport more than 471,000 passengers and 124,000 vehicles, unheard of.
Operation Marhaba 2022: a well-crafted program
According to Medias24.com, Amane Fethallah, director of the Moroccan merchant navy, specifies that booking tickets will be the sine qua non for accessing ports, all lines combined, even for short journeys.
The objective is to optimize the fluidity of operations and facilitate the work of customs and the police who will be able to better manage the flow of travelers. This obligation put in place for Marhaba 2022 will be continued for the rest of the year. In other words, no one will be able to buy a ticket in the Moroccan and Spanish port enclosures just before a crossing, because it will have to be done in advance.
Here is the detail of the connections provided by the operation reported by Médias24.com:
– Tangier Med/Algeciras axis (the most popular because it represents 60% of global traffic): 14 ships, 329 weekly rotations, the capacity of 383,000 passengers and 76,000 vehicles;
– Tanger Ville / Tarifa axis: 4 boats, 168 rotations per week, the capacity of 93,000 passengers and 16,000 vehicles;
– Nador/Almeria axis: 4 ships, 168 crossings per week, the capacity of 61,000 passengers and 20,000 vehicles;
– Nador/ Motril axis: 1 ship, 7 weekly rotations, transport of 6,800 passengers and 2,800 vehicles;
– Al Hoceima/ Motril axis: 1 boat, 4 rotations per week, the capacity of 3,900 passengers and 1,600 vehicles;
– Tangier Med / Marseille axis: 3 ships, 3 weekly crossings, transport of 1380 passengers and 645 vehicles;
– Nador / Sète axis: 3 ships, 5 rotations per week, the capacity of 7,700 passengers and 2,440 vehicles;
– Nador / Barcelona axis: 2 ships, 3 weekly crossings, 5200 passengers, and 1900 vehicles;
– Tangier Med/Barcelona –Genoa-Sète axis: 3 boats, 5 rotations per week, for a capacity of 9,000 passengers and 3,000 vehicles.
The shipping companies concerned include GNV, FRS Iberia, Intershipping, and Trasmediterranea.
In terms of health restrictions, let’s remember that the Moroccan government has tightened its entry protocol for maritime connections in view of the summer season, which is timely for Marhaba 2022: the double presentation of the PCR test and the vaccine pass does not is more topical. One of the two documents is sufficient.
