Casablanca – Rabat hosted the third edition of the Future Leaders Challenge Morocco on March 30-31 at The View Hotel Rabat, marking the event’s first time in the capital.
The gathering brought together students, school directors, decision-makers, and strategic board partners to discuss the future of hospitality and tourism.
As hospitality and tourism drive growth and inclusion, and hold a key position in economies at both national and global levels, they generate sustainable opportunities for individuals, communities, and territories.
Within this context, the Future Leaders Challenge in Morocco focuses on connecting academia, industry leaders, and public institutions to better align efforts around human capital development.
The event featured conversations centering on talent development, the sector’s attractiveness, and the evolution of human capital, with one main aim uniting participants: keeping people at the heart of the hospitality industry.
Students were involved from the beginning, playing a key part in the event. They moved beyond being spectators, actively connecting with professionals through conversations, networking sessions, and the Job Market Fair.
Speaking to Morocco World News (MWN), Minister of Tourism Fatim-Zahra Ammor highlighted the current momentum of Morocco’s tourism sector and its outlook toward 2030.
She said that Morocco is aiming to reach 26 million tourists by 2030, and that young people will play a key role in this trajectory.
“As a government, our goal is to support them as much as possible with concrete mechanisms, including access to training in the tourism sector, access to funding for young entrepreneurs, and the integration of their ideas into our national strategy,” she told MWN.
Beyond policy discussions, the event was structured around a practical challenge that had been assigned to students over a 12-week period. Participating teams presented their solutions to a panel of industry leaders, offering fresh perspectives on real issues facing the hospitality and tourism sector.
The event aims to better align academic training with industry needs, renew interest in hospitality and tourism careers, and promote a more collaborative, sustainable ecosystem built on “Community over Competition.”
One of the key figures behind the initiative, Hubert Ummels, Founder of GameChangers Group and the Future Leaders Platform, shared with MWN the mission of the Future Leaders Platform and its work across 32 countries.
According to him, the initiative focuses on building aligned human capital strategies within the hospitality and tourism industry by bringing together key stakeholders to design shared frameworks and tools.
For his part, Hamid Bentahar, President of the National Tourism Confederation told MWN that collective reflection is essential in reinventing Morocco’s hospitality model, strengthening leadership approaches, and building more sustainable and high-performing teams across the sector.