Shanghai: Morocco made a remarkable impression at ITB China 2026, the leading travel trade fair dedicated to tourism in China, held from Tuesday to Thursday at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center.
According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, under the banner “Morocco- Kingdom of Light,” the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) unveiled a 250-square-meter pavilion bringing together several Moroccan co-exhibitors and offering Chinese buyers and tour operators direct access to the full value chain of Moroccan tourism. Inside the pavilion, a Moroccan tea lounge invited visitors to experience the Kingdom’s ancestral hospitality ritual through the serving of mint tea. Two musicians dressed in djellabas continuously animated the space with performances on the guembri and darbouka, while a singer wearing a caftan performed on stage before an enthralled audience.
In one corner of the stand, a calligrapher used a traditional pen to inscribe visitors’ first names in illuminated Arabic script. Equally popular, an artisan engraved those same names onto delicate bronze accessories, later tied around visitors’ wrists as souvenir bracelets. Rich in artistic and emotional significance, these traditional crafts proved especially attractive to visitors at the Moroccan pavilion, as reflected in the long queues forming around the calligraphy space and the many attendees taking photographs beside mannequins adorned in embroidered caftans.
The ONMT also installed an immersive outdoor box in front of the convention center, where soundscapes and 360-degree imagery combined to offer visitors a sensory journey through Morocco’s diverse landscapes and civilization. Once inside the 74-square-meter enclosed structure, visitors embarked on a more than four-minute audiovisual journey through the Kingdom’s iconic landmarks. The film guided visitors through the winding alleys of the medina of Fez and its famous tanneries, before leading them to the blue streets of Chefchaouen and the majestic silhouette of the Hassan II Mosque overlooking the skyline of Casablanca. The film then shifted to the lively nighttime atmosphere of Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech before concluding at sunset on the golden dunes of the Moroccan desert.
In the caf© area adjoining the immersive box, travel professionals, tour operators and Chinese buyers exchanged views with their Moroccan counterparts on the Morocco destination, turning the experience into a platform for business discussions and networking. Representing one out of every ten international tourists worldwide, China is the world’s largest tourism market in terms of both volume and revenue. According to the China Tourism Academy and UN Tourism, outbound travel from China is expected to reach 200 million travelers by 2028.