Tourism Professionals Stage a Protest, Urge Government to Reopen Borders

Rabat – As the Moroccan government continues to provide vague responses about the reopening of borders, tourism professionals and travel agencies organized a national sit-in on January 26, urging the authorities to respond to their demands.

Moroccan authorities decided to suspend direct passenger flights to and from Morocco until January 31, 2022, and many employees operating in the tourism major are now holding onto the hope of reviving their activities starting from next month.

When asked about the possibility of reopening the borders earlier this week, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita gave a cautious response in which he stressed that the epidemiological situation must be carefully examined before taking any decision.

Tourism professionals have sent an official email, informing local authorities and the Ministry of Tourism of the nationwide sit-in they would organize in Marrakech, Agadir, Tangier, Laayoune, Dakhla, Casablanca and other cities.

The protests began today at 9 a.m following the call of the Union office of restaurants and coffee shops, the Association of taxi drivers, the Organization of tourist transport, as well as tourist guides.

Morocco’s National Confederation of Tourism (CNT), however, has not officially called for protests.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAV) also held at 11 a.m. today a second sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism in Rabat.

The protest’s organizers in Marrakech sent a notice on January 24 to the governor of the city Karim Kassi-Lahlou detailing the reasons behind their demonstrations. The notice took issue with the lack of a clear “vision adopted by the government” and “[lack of] convincing answer to the question of the reopening of borders.”

“Worsening of unemployment for more than 20 months” also features among the reasons that encouraged the protests as travel agencies across the country expressed their anger over their exclusion from the emergency plan for tourism announced by the government a few days ago.

The professionals described the decision as “unfair,” noting that they were excluded from benefiting from the aid despite suffering from dire consequences due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government’s support system for the tourism industry does not meet their expectations, they argued, emphasizing in statements to the press that their grievances addressed to Minister of Tourism Fatima-Zahra Ammor were not taken into account.

Many tourism employees in Morocco are still unable to resume their activities because they have suffered from severe repercussions due to the ongoing health crisis and the constant border closures.