Marrakech Tourism Industry Protests German Booking Site’s Practices

In Marrakech, the owners of tourist transport, taxi drivers, as well as restaurateurs and complex operators accuse the German booking site Get Your Guide of "selling illusions to foreign tourists in foreign currency without paying taxes to the Kingdom." They accuse the platform of violating commercial law by operating without a travel agency or booking voucher. They denounce the fact that bookings are made online directly from Europe via their site based in Berlin, Germany. They also criticized the fact that payment in Moroccan dirhams is prohibited. Only foreign bank cards are accepted, they specify.

Restaurateurs say this site has transformed some places dedicated to quad bikes into restaurants without authorization, not respecting the specifications in force, nor the hygiene and control standards imposed by the ONSSA. The quad bike mechanics work during the day and turn into waiters in the evening, most of them being minors who are often poorly paid and not affiliated with the CNSS, the professionals also denounce. According to them, this site offers for an amount of 260 dirhams, a round trip transport from Marrakech to Agafay, with 30 minutes of quad bike ride, 30 minutes of camel ride, followed by a dinner composed of a vegetable tagine prepared in deplorable sanitary conditions, as well as a mint tea.

After these denunciations, the professionals call on the Ministries of Tourism and the Interior to intervene urgently to put an end to the disorder caused by the site. They also ask that the control campaigns include these establishments, which employ waiters who are actually quad bike mechanics or unauthorized tourist transport drivers.