By Hajare El Khaldi
By Hajare El Khaldi
Rabat- Morocco plans to tax Airbnb and Booking websites in order to offer equal opportunities for hotels and traditional travel agencies, starting 2019.
According to Mehdi Taleb, Head of Regulation, Development and Quality at the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, Air Transport and Social Economy, the new regulations aim to bridge the gap that financially harmed more than 3,800 hotels and hundreds of local travel agencies, reported Bloomberg.
“Critics say the unregulated, unlicensed short-term rental market has hurt conventional travel operations and driven up property prices, while depriving governments of revenue,” read the article.
The Moroccan authorities, who will cooperate with undercover hotel inspectors to reinforce the new rule, will also help local online travel platforms effectively compete with global websites by boosting the quality of their offers.
Taleb declared that the changes are part of the country’s efforts to tackle the “new reality which is distorting visibility for our tourism development strategies,” especially given the fact that 60 percent of the tourists visiting Morocco evade the traditional tourism market by planning their holidays online.
In Africa, Morocco ranks second to South Africa in terms of Airbnb traffic, with 20,000 users aiming to rent homes.
Traditional businesses welcomed the government’s decision, but remain skeptical about its ability to “outwit” the internet and the new technologies amid economic challenges.
The owner of Auberge Dardara in Chefchaouen, Jaber Al-Halabi, told Bloomberg, “the market here is totally imbalanced because of Booking.com, Airbnb, and the informal rental sector,” he added, “many people squat with relatives so that they can rent their own homes to tourists. Poverty is the problem.”
