First Edition Of The Spanish-moroccan Conference On Tourism, Water, And Sustainable Development In Dakhla

“This conference is part of an effort to foster public-private partnerships between organizations in both Spain and Morocco aimed at promoting sustainability in the tourism sector, particularly in emerging tourist destinations in the Moroccan Sahara " as noted by Fatima Bekkar, president of the organization Sahara Horizons, which is organizing this first edition alongside the leading Spanish company in water treatment and desalination solutions, Keiken Engineering.

The event took place at the headquarters of the South Atlantic Maritime Fisheries Chamber and featured several speakers from both countries, notably the director of investment support at the Moroccan agency for small and medium-sized enterprises (MAROC PME), Mounir Zraidi; the president of the Regional Tourism Council of the Dakhla Oued Eddahab region,  Ahmed Abdellaoui, the Director of the Water, Air, and Soil Unit at the Eurecat Foundation, Xavier Martínez, the General Director of the Dakhla Regional Multiservice Company, Moulay El Mehdi Rachid, the Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Jaén and an international expert in sustainable tourism, Professor Juan Ignacio Pulido Fernández, the Director General of the Regional Investment Center, Faysal Sahmani, a university professor in the Department of Geography at Hassan II University in Casablanca, Rachida el Morabet, as well as the Senior Advisor at the consulting firm Audakia Lab XXI, Juan Manuel Fernández Serrano, among other speakers and representatives from organizations and companies in both Spain and Morocco.

This first day was divided into three roundtable discussions that addressed topics such as the incentives available in Morocco for promoting and financing sustainability in the tourism sector, the environmental challenges faced by an emerging tourist destination like the Dakhla Oued Eddahab region, and the current solutions available on the market for efficient water management in the tourism sector.

According to Dahi Ahl El Khattat, secretary general of the Sahara Horizons association and vice president of the regional tourism council, “This conference is of crucial importance for the future of the tourism sector in our region, and we are currently seeking to adopt advanced technologies for the efficient management of natural resources in the tourism sector.”

Sahara Horizons, the organization that led this event, is a Moroccan entity primarily dedicated to promoting initiatives and projects aimed at fostering cooperation and socioeconomic development throughout the greater Sahara region, including southern Morocco, Mauritania, and the Sahel countries.

In recent years, this Moroccan organization has been collaborating closely with public and private entities in Spain to facilitate access to investment and business opportunities within its area of operation.

The coordinator of this first edition of the Spanish-Moroccan conference in Dakhla, Nourdine Mouati, highlighted the strong complementarity between Spanish and Moroccan companies in the tourism and environmental sectors, enabling them to work together to open new markets on the African continent, using the Dakhla Oued Eddahab region as a base— the region in southern Morocco that is best connected to the rest of the continent and which, in a few years, will be home to the largest logistics and business hub in all of West Africa.