Moroccan Hotel Prices Surge as Expats Return for Summer Vacation

Many hotels raise the prices of their services during the summer vacation. A practice that has become traditional and is observed every year in all Moroccan cities. Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier are at the top of the cities where overnight stay prices are exorbitant, sometimes in hotel establishments that do not live up to their name of 4 or 5 star hotels. This year, the significant increase in consumer products and diesel is exacerbating the situation.

"This problem is explained by several factors, including the influx of tourists during the months of July-August, in particular the MRE," says a tourism operator to Hespress. Faced with this strong demand boosted by the MRE, we have a tourism supply in Morocco that responds at all levels." According to his explanations, the tourist in search of luxury finds it, and the one who is looking for affordable prices also finds them. "Alongside the hotels, Morocco has hostels. This diversity is the true wealth of the Moroccan tourism offer," he stressed, insisting that "tourism offers in Morocco must remain standard and valued in the minds of customers, because an economical and cheap tourism will not contribute to building a revenue-generating sector".

Lahcen Haddad, former Minister of Tourism, does not share this view. In "evoking the high prices of tourist services, we must think essentially about how to make them accessible to the Moroccan citizen, because the foreigner is able to bear the expenses because he chooses in advance the hotels where he will spend his vacation," he stressed, believing that national strategies related to tourism should not focus on the quantitative aspect (the number of tourists who will come to Morocco). According to him, the ideal would be to "focus on their added value".

The hotels also have their part to play. "Moroccan hotels are required, in turn, to provide services at the level of dedication to this image and these strategies that would allow economic development through the tourism sector," analyzed the former minister, noting that "the number of tourists who will come to Morocco is not the main point, but rather the value they will bring, the revenues they will create and the promotion they will add to the country."