On July 2021 A partnership agreement was signed, between the Ministry of Tourism, Handicrafts, Air Transport and Social Economy, the Wilaya of the of Souss Massa Region, the Council of the Region Souss Massa and the Moroccan Agency for Tourism development (SMIT) for the implementation of the support program to develop the tourism SMEs in the Souss-Massa Region, this was agreed during the working visit to the city of Agadir, carried out by Mrs. Nadia Fettah Alaoui, Minister of Tourism, Handicrafts, Air Transport and Social Economy and Mr. Imad Barrakad, Director General of SMIT.

This agreement comes with an innovative approach of strategic partnership with the Regions, by pooling efforts for the development of tourism that has been defined as a shared competence by Organic Law No. 111-14 relating to the Regions. The approach is based on the first hand on a joint financing of the support program for the tourist SMEs and on the other hand on the execution of the program by a local incubator that will be created as a company of the regional development .

In accordance with the high royal orientations to make the VSE/SME a key factor of the economic growth, the SMIT has engaged, in 2020, some engineering works for the conception of a national program of support to the development of the tourist VSE/SME. This programme was launched by considering the development needs of the tourism product in the various regions (in urban and rural areas), by developing a bank of projects based on a dozen industries and a segmentation between VSEs and small and medium-sized enterprises, and by defining the support mechanisms needed to accompany project leaders and ensure the profitability and sustainability of their investments.

The engineering of the SMIT allowed to have a national vision which enabled to raise the financing of this programme and these despite a difficult context of budgetary restrictions due to the sanitary crisis and which has been materialized by the signature of an agreement with the two ministries of Tourism and Finance.

This support program provides targeted support mechanisms that meet the development needs of SMEs, namely (i) investment support in the form of a bonus ranging from 10 to 50% of the investment amount depending on the product and the degree of innovation, (ii) technical advice and expertise by covering up to 90% of the cost of studies, advice,and expertise by covering up to 90% of the cost of studies, consulting, technical assistance and training and (iii) support (tourism engineering) via the establishment of a digital platform dedicated to SMEs (presentation of tourism ecosystems, presentation of the project bank by ecosystem and by sector, advice, guidance and support for SMEs for the development of their tourism projects). 

The signed partnership comes to concretize and deploy the support program forthe SMEs at the lRegional  Souss Massa level, it will alsocontribute to the revival of the dynamics of investment after years of decline and to mitigate the effects of the health crisis on the pace of development of the destination Agadir.

A total public investment of 100 million dirhams will be allocated to this support program, it will be financed in equal parts by the SMIT and the Council of the Souss Massa Region. The deployment of this mechanism will be assigned to a new local structure, that will be created by  partners in the form of a dedicated Regional Development Company. This RDC, initially granted with a share capital of 04 MDH to be carried by the partners, will play the role of regional incubator for the implementation of the mechanism.  

This mechanism support is proposed for projects promoters in the various tourist sectors (Accommodation, Leisure, Catering, Well-Being, Sports, tourist transport) but also to the one promoting sectors focused on animation and innovative projects. the objective is to enrich and densify the entertainment offer of the destination. The operationalization of this mechanism will have a great impact on the revitalization of tourist investment and consequently on the socio-economic development of the Region by making it possible to attract new investors in the form of tourist SME with the objective of creating 150 tourists SMEs and more than 600 new direct jobs.