The leading Chinese travel player search partnerships in Morocco

Every week, Chinese travel operators scan destinations looking for new partners. Morocco is on their list. The question is whether your business is visible and partner-ready when they look.

In May 2025, Morocco’s tourism office signed partnership agreements with Trip.com (Ctrip), Fliggy, CITS, UTS, and Shanghai Youpai at ITB China in Shanghai. The stated goal: 1.15 million Chinese overnight stays by 2028. That kind of institutional push creates real commercial opportunities, but only for Moroccan operators who know what Chinese travel companies actually need from local partners.

Here is what Chinese travel operators look for when they scout partnerships in Morocco.

The Numbers First

• Chinese tourist arrivals in Morocco reached 200,000 in 2025, double the 2024 figure of 106,000. Source: Morocco World News, September 2025.
• Morocco target for 2026: 500,000 Chinese visitors. Target for 2030: 1 million.
• Royal Air Maroc relaunched its Casablanca-Beijing route in January 2025. China Eastern Airlines opened Shanghai-Casablanca in the same month. Two direct connections in one month changed the market.
• Morocco ranks second in Africa on the China Ready Index 2026, after South Africa.
• Morocco signed MoUs with Trip.com, Fliggy, UTS, and Youpai Travel in May 2025, targeting an additional 100,000 overnight stays in the short term.

Recent News (2025-2026)

• May 2025: Morocco’s National Tourist Office (ONMT) signed five partnership agreements at ITB China in Shanghai, including a strategic three-year deal with Trip.com, China’s largest OTA. The plan targets 1.15 million Chinese overnight stays by 2028. (Source: capmad.com)
• January 2025: Royal Air Maroc and China Eastern Airlines both launched direct China-Morocco routes. This cut transit time significantly and removed one of the main barriers that had kept Chinese arrivals below potential. (Source: Morocco World News)

What Chinese Travel Companies Say About Morocco Online

On Xiaohongshu, Morocco content consistently performs above average for African destinations. Chefchaouen’s blue medina, the Sahara dunes at Merzouga, and the geometric tile work of Fes generate strong save rates. Chinese users describe Morocco as “exotic but accessible” and “worth the flight.” The main complaints: guides pushing shopping, limited Alipay acceptance, and French menus in restaurants.

On Ctrip reviews, five-star riads in Marrakech score well for aesthetics but get marked down on Chinese-language service. The gap between product quality and Chinese-ready service is the clearest signal of where partnership opportunities lie.

What Chinese Travel Operators Need From a Morocco Partner

1. Active presence on Chinese platforms

Chinese operators check WeChat, Xiaohongshu, and Ctrip before they call you. An abandoned account or an empty Ctrip listing is a red flag. It signals that you are not serious about the Chinese market. A Moroccan riad with 200 five-star Ctrip reviews gets a meeting. One with no presence online does not.

2. Mandarin materials and in-language communication

The negotiation can happen in English. The product documentation cannot. Chinese operators need itineraries, brochures, and contracts they can share with their own clients in Simplified Chinese. Machine-translated materials damage trust immediately. Invest in proper localization.

3. Flexible, customizable itineraries

The Chinese FIT segment is growing fast. Travelers book 73% of trips less than a month in advance (Skift, 2024). They want experiences they can adapt, not rigid group tours. Moroccan operators who can offer flexible packages, private guides, and custom extensions (Sahara plus Fes plus coast) are more attractive to Chinese OTA partners than those selling fixed group itineraries only.

4. Mobile payment setup

Alipay and WeChat Pay are not optional extras in 2026. They are baseline requirements. Chinese tourists do not carry much cash and rarely use Western credit cards. A lodge or tour operator without Chinese payment options creates friction at every transaction point. Both platforms offer international merchant accounts that are straightforward to set up.

5. Mandarin-speaking staff

As I told Morocco World News a few years ago: “Chinese people would like to speak Chinese.” It is that simple. One Mandarin speaker on the team changes the experience completely. It gets mentioned in every review that guest posts on Xiaohongshu. Those reviews drive more bookings than any advertising campaign you run.

6. Understanding of Chinese travel culture

Group dynamics, face (mianzi), the importance of shopping, the aversion to the number 4, multi-generational family travel with grandparents and children in the same vehicle. These are not exotic preferences. They are predictable patterns that any operator willing to spend a day reading about them can prepare for. Chinese operators notice when a local partner has done this homework.

7. Listing on Ctrip and Fliggy

Over 90% of Chinese travel bookings go through OTAs. Ctrip (Trip.com) and Fliggy (Alibaba’s travel platform) are the two essential ones for Morocco. Given that ONMT signed direct MoUs with both in 2025, there is now an institutional channel to get Moroccan products listed. Use it. A well-maintained OTA listing with good photos, accurate pricing, and recent reviews does more for your Chinese visibility than most paid campaigns.

8. Safety and hygiene visible in Chinese

Chinese travelers do extensive research before travel, including safety checks. Morocco’s safety record is generally positive in Chinese travel communities. The consistent complaint is guide pressure in the medinas of Marrakech and Fes. Operators who address this proactively, with structured visit programs and clear pricing, get better reviews and stronger OTA rankings.

9. Photogenic and shareable experiences

China’s FIT traveler documents everything and shares it on Xiaohongshu and Douyin. Morocco is exceptional raw material: Chefchaouen’s blue alleys, camel rides at sunset in the Sahara, traditional hammam treatments, the geometric complexity of Fes’s medina. Build your product around the moments worth photographing and they sell themselves on Chinese social media.

10. Partnerships with Chinese OTAs through institutional channels

The 2025 ONMT-Trip.com MoU is the right moment to connect with Chinese OTAs through official channels. Contact the ONMT Morocco China desk. Present your product to Trip.com’s destination team. The institutional push creates visibility at the platform level. Your job is to have a product good enough to convert that visibility into bookings.

Opportunities for Morocco Businesses Right Now

Three segments are growing fast and underserved in Morocco’s Chinese market:

• Chinese Muslim travelers: Morocco’s halal infrastructure is genuine. Mosques, halal food, the call to prayer. This segment is growing and has strong purchase intent. Moroccan operators with halal-certified services and Mandarin descriptions of Islamic heritage sites have a real edge.
• Morocco as a Europe add-on: Many Chinese tourists fly into Madrid or Lisbon and add 4-7 days in Morocco. Tour operators in Spain and Portugal who package Morocco extensions are your indirect sales channel. Approach them.
• Luxury FIT travelers: Chinese travelers spending 30,000 RMB or more per person are looking for private experiences, exclusive riads, desert camps with no other guests. This is where Morocco’s product genuinely competes with more established destinations. Price it correctly and promote it on Xiaohongshu.

Reach Them on Xiaohongshu and Douyin

For Morocco, the best-performing content formats on Xiaohongshu in 2025 are: “7 days in Morocco itinerary” (高保存率), “Chefchaouen photography guide”, and “Morocco halal travel tips.” These get saved heavily. Save rate matters more than likes on this platform.

Relevant hashtags to build content around: #摩洛哥旅游 (Morocco travel), #蓝白小城 (Blue and White City), #撒哈拉沙漠 (Sahara Desert), #北非旅行 (North Africa travel).

On Douyin, Chefchaouen and Sahara sunset content consistently generates strong organic reach. A 30-second clip from the top of a Marrakech riad at sunset, with Arabic music and no narration, works better than a promotional video. The algorithm rewards genuine visual content.

For Moroccan operators wanting to build their Chinese platform presence: see how we run Xiaohongshu campaigns and our Douyin strategy for tourism destinations.

Summary: What Chinese Travel Operators Want From Morocco Partners

Requirement	What It Means in Practice	Priority
Chinese platform presence	Active Ctrip listing, Xiaohongshu account, WeChat	High
Mandarin materials	Itineraries, brochures, contracts in Simplified Chinese	High
Mobile payments	Alipay and WeChat Pay accepted	High
Mandarin staff	At least one Mandarin speaker in guest-facing role	High
Flexible itineraries	Customizable packages for FIT travelers	Medium
OTA listing	Ctrip and Fliggy with photos and accurate pricing	High
Photogenic experiences	Chefchaouen, Sahara, medina, hammam	Medium
Halal services	For the Chinese Muslim travel segment	Medium

Ready to Work With Chinese Travel Operators?

Building a partnership with Chinese OTAs requires a Chinese digital presence, in-language materials, and products adapted to what Chinese travelers actually want. We help Moroccan tourism businesses build all of that.

Contact us to discuss your Morocco Chinese partnership strategy.

Oliver Verot is the founder of GMA (Gentlemen Marketing Agency), based in Shanghai since 2012. He has worked on China-Morocco tourism for years, including advising operators on Chinese platform strategy and OTA partnerships. June 2026.