British travel firms have announced major expansion plans to Morocco at a time when UK tourism to Mallorca is falling. Jet2 have said that they will be offering year round access to the North African country from three UK airports adding Glasgow next month bringing the total to four. It comes at a time when Mallorca wants fewer tourists with the European travel industry privately stating: "be careful what you wish for."
Year-round routes to the North African country are on sale from six UK airports through to winter 2025-26 as part of the Britain´s travel firms expanded programme.
The Jet2 programme will increase to eight airports for summer 2026 with the addition of weekly flights to Agadir from East Midlands and Newcastle airports.
Jet 2 Chief executive Steve Heapy said: “With the weather in the UK taking another turn for the worse, we are delighted to be taking customers to the sunshine thanks to our new programme of flights and holidays to Agadir and Marrakech in Morocco.
“The addition of flights and packages to these stunning destinations give customers and independent travel agents plenty of choice and flexibility to explore Morocco as a year-round destination, and they are proving to be incredibly popular.”
While no-one is doubting the popularity of Mallorca with British tourists there could be cause for concern locally especially after the anti-tourism protests of last summer and the recently announced plans by the Balearic government to raise the rate of the tourist tax for next summer. British tourism to the Balearics fell by 10 percent in July and just under five percent in August.
One veteran local hotelier said "Our loss could be Morocco´s gain."
Other British tour operators have also expanded their programme to Morocco. It was reported last summer that one major European travel firm was pondering sending tourists to Morocco if Mallorca was "over saturated."
The bad news for Mallorca is that Morocco is considered a year round holiday destination with plenty of winter flights from the UK unlike Mallorca.