Morocco’s tourism sector is thriving as the government announced that the number of tourists visiting the kingdom grew 10 percent in the first seven months of 2007 despite the wave of suicide bombing and Al-Qaeda’s threats that triggered a ‘maximum’ security alert in the North African country.

Around 4.3 million tourists visited Morocco in the January-to-July period, an increase of 10% year-on-year with over 1 million tourists visiting the country in July alone according to figures from the Department of Tourism.

The French (1.7 million) form the largest number of foreign visitors, followed by visitors from Spain (795,000), Belgium (285,000), the UK (261,000), the Netherlands (211,000), Germany (182,000), and Italy (164,000).

Low cost airlines such as Ryanair, EasyJet and FlyMonarch are playing a key role in stimulating Morocco’s tourism and economic growth.

The 10% increase is a positive figure at a time when many foreign investors – mainly from the Gulf - are pouring huge money into both tourism and real estate sectors in the kingdom.

Two weeks ago, Abu Dhabi-based Reem Investments signed an agreement with the Moroccan government to develop an $803.7 million project in Marrakech, which is one of the four projects totalling $3.4 billion.

King Mohammed VI is personally involved in meetings with foreign investors, and spearheading the drive to make the kingdom one of the world’s favourite tourist destinations.

Tourism is Morocco’s biggest source of foreign currency and quintessential to helping reduce unemployment and eradicate poverty in the North African country.

Tourism officials and experts feared that the wave of suicide bombings in Casablanca in March and April and repeated Al-Qaeda’s threats to launch attacks in North African countries would deter tourists from flocking to Morocco, prompting the government to put the country on a “maximum” security alert in July, but lowering it to “intermediate” by mid September.

The government has developed an ambitious strategy, dubbed "Vision 2010", aimed at attracting 10 million tourists annually by 2010.

Revenue from tourism increased 29 percent to 52.9 billion dirhams ($6.56 billion) in 2006, helping oil-importing Morocco cope with high world oil prices.

Earlier this year, Morocco's finance ministry announced tourism revenues had surpassed remittances for the first time as a share of the country's GDP.