Moroccan Investors Acquire Club Med Agadir, Plan Luxury Hotel Transformation

The group formed by the Benabbès-Taarji family and Guy Marrache is now the new owner of the Club Med Agadir, which has been operated under a lease for 56 years. Of all the hotel groups, only this group managed to convince the Club Med group to take over the iconic hotel establishment in the capital of Souss-Massa, which has remained closed since 2021 with its 374 rooms. The ambition of the Benabbès-Taarji family and Guy Marrache, owners of the Tikida Group, is to transform the former Club Med in Agadir into a new 5-star hotel with 400 rooms, under the Robinson Magic Life brand, the high-end brand of the world’s number one tourism company TUI.

This investment in Agadir will provide a breath of fresh air to the kingdom’s first seaside resort. Since its closure, the former Club Med village-hotel, which was the very first permanent concrete establishment of Club Med on the African continent after the reconstruction of Agadir, following the 1960 earthquake, is detrimental to the marketable classified bedding capacity of the capital of Souss, especially at the level of the first line, reports Challenge, adding that the Club Med Agadir, the Palais des Roses hotel, already taken over by the Egyptian group Pickalbatros, and the Sofitel Royal Bay, currently being renovated by the ABS Holding company, were the three beachfront establishments in the seaside resort that were closed during the health crisis.

The Tikida Group was founded in 1968 by Guy Marrache. He was joined in 1973 by Ahmed Benabbès-Taarji. Together, they developed their business in the travel sector and then in the tourism transport sector (land and air), before turning to the development of hotels and other tourism and leisure activities. Today, the Tikida Group has a bedding capacity of more than 8,000 beds, mainly in Marrakech, Agadir and Taghazout. Since 2011, the RIU chain has been managing almost the entire hotel portfolio of the Tikida Group, co-chaired by Jalil Benabbès Taarji and Guy Marrache. The latter are now fully dedicated to investment.

After selling its Agadir site, Club Med is looking to other horizons. It should open its new premium resort in Essaouira this year, currently under construction. The infrastructure is financed up to 90 million euros. The Trident brand is investing 25 million euros to renovate the Palmeraie Club Med located in Marrakech. The establishment should have an additional hundred rooms, a large family pool and a Baby Club.