Morocco has stormed into the African tourism spotlight, joining Egypt, Algeria and a growing cohort of countries riding an unprecedented travel boom across the continent. At the heart of this acceleration is air connectivity, and few carriers embody the shift more clearly than Saudi low cost airline flynas, which is rapidly stitching together new links between the Gulf and North Africa. With fresh routes to Rabat, Cairo, El Alamein and other strategic gateways, the airline is reshaping how visitors access Morocco and its neighbors, and helping to propel a new phase of growth in one of the world’s most dynamic tourism regions.
Flynas Expands Its North African Footprint
Flynas has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy in recent years, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s ambition to connect the kingdom with hundreds of destinations worldwide by 2030. North Africa has become a prime beneficiary of this push. The airline already serves multiple Egyptian cities including Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and Sohag, and has steadily layered in services that specifically target emerging leisure hotspots popular with Gulf travelers.
In Egypt, flynas celebrated its first direct seasonal route between Riyadh and El Alamein on the Mediterranean coast in July 2024, adding the resort city to its roster of summer destinations. The move was followed by the announcement of new flights between Jeddah and El Alamein, set to begin with twice weekly services from July 1, further boosting capacity to one of Egypt’s fastest growing coastal retreats. These routes complement the carrier’s growing presence in Cairo, where it has expanded operations to the Sphinx International Airport outside the city as part of its broader network strategy.
The airline’s ambitions are not limited to Egypt. In April 2025 flynas announced a fresh slate of summer destinations that included Casablanca, introducing new direct flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to Morocco’s economic capital. Then in February 2026, the carrier marked three years of nonstop Jeddah–Casablanca operations and used a high profile event in Rabat to confirm plans for a new route to Morocco’s political and coastal capital “soon.” The announcement solidified Morocco’s position as a key pillar in flynas’ North African growth plan and underscored the depth of demand between the Gulf and the Maghreb.
Morocco’s Tourism Surge Reaches Record Levels
Flynas’ interest in Morocco is no coincidence. The country has become one of Africa’s clearest tourism success stories, consistently posting record arrival numbers and outpacing regional competitors. After welcoming around 17.4 million visitors in 2024, an increase of about 20 percent compared with the previous year, Morocco moved ahead of schedule on its national tourism roadmap and firmly established itself as Africa’s most visited destination by arrivals.
The momentum did not stop there. In 2025 Morocco’s inbound visitor count surged again, reaching close to 19.8 million tourists and generating tourism revenues estimated at more than 13 billion dollars. Authorities attributed the jump to a strategy centered on three priorities: expanding air connectivity, diversifying tourism products and improving service quality nationwide. In practice, that has meant aggressive route development, support for both legacy and low cost carriers, and a sustained effort to promote destinations beyond Marrakech and Agadir.
Morocco’s performance has positioned it as the standard bearer for African tourism growth. The kingdom has effectively achieved some of the targets initially set for 2026 well ahead of schedule and is now working toward a long term objective of attracting around 26 million tourists by 2030. The upcoming co hosting of the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal is seen as a powerful catalyst, but the current numbers suggest that the groundwork laid by airlines and tourism authorities is already paying off.
Rabat, Casablanca And Secondary Cities Step Onto Center Stage
The expansion of flynas into Rabat and Casablanca also reflects Morocco’s push to spread tourism benefits more evenly across its regions. Casablanca, long seen primarily as a business hub, has increasingly embraced its role as an international gateway, with both Gulf carriers and European low cost airlines ramping up services. For flynas, linking Jeddah and Riyadh to Casablanca provides Saudi travelers with direct access to Morocco’s commercial capital while also enabling easy onward travel to cities such as Marrakech, Fez and Tangier.
Rabat’s emergence as a planned destination for flynas signals another important shift. The Moroccan capital has historically been overshadowed by Marrakech’s red city glamour, but it offers a different kind of appeal: an oceanfront setting, a compact and walkable historic core, and a calmer pace that is starting to resonate with travelers seeking authenticity over crowds. Tourism promotion campaigns have increasingly highlighted Rabat as a “four season” cultural city, and new international routes are expected to accelerate that repositioning.
Beyond the big names, Morocco has also worked to integrate secondary destinations into its tourism map, backed by new air connections from multiple carriers. Agreements with low cost airlines have brought direct international flights to cities such as Ouarzazate, Errachidia and Dakhla, while domestic routes operated by the national carrier knit together desert, coastal and mountain regions. The arrival of more Gulf based airlines, including flynas, adds another layer of connectivity that allows visitors to combine city breaks in Casablanca or Rabat with desert experiences in the southeast or surf towns along the Atlantic coast.
Egypt’s Tourism Rebound And The Rise Of El Alamein
If Morocco leads Africa in visitor numbers, Egypt remains one of the continent’s heavyweights both by arrivals and tourism revenue, and its rebound since the pandemic has been striking. In 2024 the country received about 15.7 million tourists, surpassing its previous record of 14.9 million set in 2023. By mid decade, officials were outlining a strategy to reach around 30 million visitors by 2028, driven by expanded capacity, major cultural projects and improvements in the overall tourist experience.
A key milestone in Egypt’s new tourism era was the full opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids in late 2025. Touted as the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization, the facility houses tens of thousands of artifacts including the complete collection from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Its launch, often described by Egyptian officials as a “gift to the world,” has been framed as a central pillar in Egypt’s plan to draw millions of additional visitors annually and to renew global interest in its ancient heritage.
At the same time, Egypt is cultivating new coastal destinations to complement its classic Red Sea resorts. El Alamein on the Mediterranean north coast has quickly transformed from a quiet town best known for its Second World War history into a modern resort corridor lined with high rise hotels, marinas and beachfront developments. For Gulf visitors, the combination of milder summer temperatures, upscale residences and relative proximity makes the region especially attractive.
Flynas has been quick to capitalize on El Alamein’s rise. After launching the first direct route between Riyadh and the city in July 2024, the airline announced additional flights from Jeddah beginning in the summer of 2025. The new services increase weekly capacity to the resort and make it easier for Saudi and transit passengers to complement pilgrimages or business trips to the kingdom with Mediterranean holidays in Egypt. The model illustrates how targeted air connectivity can accelerate the maturation of an emerging destination within just a few seasons.
Algeria And Its Neighbors Look To Catch Up
While Morocco and Egypt currently dominate the headlines, a broader North African tourism story is unfolding, and Algeria has begun to step forward. With its vast coastline, Sahara landscapes and relatively untapped cultural sites, Algeria is seen by industry observers as one of the region’s most promising but underdeveloped tourism markets. Regulatory hurdles, limited visa facilitation and comparatively low international seat capacity have long constrained its growth, yet recent policy signals point to a gradual opening.
Algerian authorities have been working to improve infrastructure, upgrade airports and promote coastal and desert destinations in a more coordinated way. New hotels along the Mediterranean and investment in high end desert lodges near oasis towns indicate a desire to attract higher spending visitors rather than chasing pure volume. The government has also engaged with carriers in the Gulf and Europe to explore additional routes that could plug Algerian cities into the same tourism circuits that already connect Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
Although flynas has so far concentrated its North African operations on Egypt and Morocco, its stated ambition to expand to more than 160 destinations by 2030 leaves the door open for further westward moves. For Algeria and its neighbors, the experience of El Alamein or Casablanca highlights how quickly a destination can change trajectory once it is integrated into a robust network of regional hubs. As demand for Africa and the Mediterranean grows among Gulf travelers, the incentive to develop new stopover and leisure combinations will only increase.
The Gulf Connection And Changing Travel Patterns
Underlying the surge in flights to Rabat, Cairo, El Alamein and other North African cities is a profound transformation in travel flows between the Gulf and Africa. Historically, many visitors from Europe and North America reached North Africa via European hubs. Today, however, Gulf airlines from full service carriers to low cost operators like flynas are routing increasing numbers of passengers through Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha and Abu Dhabi, turning these cities into alternative gateways for both religious and leisure traffic.
For Saudi Arabia, expanding connections to Morocco, Egypt and other African states fits neatly into its own tourism and aviation agendas. The National Civil Aviation Strategy aims to boost the number of international destinations served by Saudi carriers to the hundreds by 2030, while the country’s tourism vision sets equally ambitious targets for visitor arrivals. Carriers such as flynas have positioned themselves as key execution partners, branding their expansion under slogans that emphasize linking the world to the kingdom and facilitating access to the holy cities.
The practical effect for travelers is a growing menu of one stop itineraries that pair pilgrimages or business visits in Saudi Arabia with beach breaks in El Alamein, cultural exploration in Rabat or city stays in Casablanca and Cairo. For North African countries, Gulf markets provide a resilient source of demand that can help offset volatility in European source markets and support year round occupancy, particularly during peak summer months when temperatures in the Gulf region push residents to seek cooler coastal climates.
Infrastructure, Events And The Road To 2030
Airlines alone cannot sustain a tourism boom, and governments across North Africa are racing to align infrastructure, events and product development with the new wave of connectivity. Morocco has poured resources into upgrading airports, improving highways and expanding hotel capacity in major and secondary cities alike. The country’s successful bid to co host the 2030 World Cup is accelerating timelines for stadium modernization, urban transport projects and coastal regeneration plans from Tangier in the north to Agadir in the south.
Egypt has followed a similar path, coupling its investment in the Grand Egyptian Museum with improvements in the Sphinx Airport near Giza, expansions at Red Sea airports and an aggressive agenda for new resorts on the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts. Large scale events, from cultural festivals to sporting competitions, are increasingly used to draw international attention and to showcase refurbished heritage sites and new integrated resort developments.
Across the region, sustainability has become an increasingly prominent theme. Authorities and industry stakeholders are under pressure to balance rapid growth with environmental and community considerations, particularly in fragile desert and coastal ecosystems. Initiatives range from promoting renewable energy use in hotels to encouraging longer stays and more responsible forms of travel that distribute spending beyond traditional hotspots.
What Travelers Can Expect From The New Network
For travelers, the combination of record arrivals and expanding airline networks translates into more choice, greater flexibility and increasingly diverse itineraries. Routes operated by flynas and its peers make it easier to combine destinations that would once have required multiple connections: a long weekend in Rabat followed by a week on Egypt’s north coast, for example, or a pilgrimage journey that seamlessly connects to a cultural circuit through Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech.
Improved connectivity is also reducing the perception of distance between the Gulf and North Africa. Shorter flight times, competitive fares and an expanding roster of seasonal and year round services are encouraging visitors to think of Morocco, Egypt and potentially Algeria as repeat destinations rather than once in a lifetime trips. As airlines test new city pairs and adjust capacity based on demand, secondary airports like El Alamein or Sphinx near Cairo are likely to capture a larger share of arrivals.
Looking ahead to 2030, when Morocco hosts World Cup matches and Egypt’s Grand Egyptian Museum is expected to be fully integrated into global touring circuits, the network taking shape today will form the backbone of how millions of travelers experience the region. The expansion of flynas into Rabat, Cairo, El Alamein and other key gateways is therefore more than an airline growth story. It is a glimpse into a new era of African tourism, in which Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and their neighbors are connected more closely than ever before to each other and to the broader world.