Moroccan Restaurant Industry in Crisis, Pleads for Government Aid

While they hoped to also benefit from government support to compensate for the colossal losses resulting from the long closure, these catering professionals were surprised to find a total absence of a roadmap concerning them.

After an emergency meeting held on Tuesday in Marrakech, these actors from several professional groups expressed their discontent through a joint press release. According to them, "the tourist catering sector is the only one to have been excluded from any support and support measure and to have benefited from no aid or support measure, even though it has been on the front line in the face of the devastating effects of this pandemic".

To "survive in the short term", tourist restaurants have had to resort to Relance and Oxygène loans. But the "extension of restrictive measures" and the "lack of visibility" on a possible recovery, "threaten the sustainability of the last establishments still open", they continue.

As a result, the sector is subject to numerous fixed tax burdens calculated on the basis of their rental value and their investment. In the absence of income, they demand that these taxes be canceled for the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years.

The associations also recall that tourist restaurants have always been classified by the regional tourism delegations to "the exclusion of any other ministerial department" and that since the creation of the regional tourism councils, the regional associations of tourist restaurants have always been part of their board of directors.

To "clarify" the situation which they describe as "dangerous", these associations are requesting an urgent meeting with the Minister of Tourism. In addition to "being penalized and deprived of all support measures, tourist restaurants are now "obliged to justify and legitimize their place in the national tourism landscape".