Moroccan Spa Industry Struggles to Reopen Amid Tourism Downturn

The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a severe blow to SPAs and other establishments in charge of care and well-being. The difficulties experienced by the tourism industry have strongly impacted this activity which remains linked to the hotel industry. Hotels must first receive customers before directing them to these establishments. But these last few months have been quite catastrophic for the tourism sector. Hotels are slowly resuming activity but with conditions that do not really allow SPAs and others to be solicited as in the past. Some, unable to hold on, had to close, hoping for better days to return to this sector, whose good reputation goes beyond the Moroccan borders, reports the MAP.

According to a study by the Global Wellness Institute on wellness tourism, Morocco, in this sector, is the second most promising market in the MENA region. But the coronavirus seems to have stifled it. For example, Maison D’ASA in Casablanca is practically dependent on hotels to which it supplies organic cosmetic products. Today, Asma El Mernissi, the boss of this establishment, describes a rather difficult situation. "The Pandemic has been a real disaster for our business. We were provoked by the fear and panic of customers. We had to resolve to close our establishment even before March 15 and put the entire team on forced rest."

The promoters of these institutes also point to the lack of communication. "This important hotel component has suffered a brutal halt in its SPA activity and with the absence of any interlocutor even to recover our invoices, we have been doubly penalized and short of cash to meet our various expenses: salaries, suppliers, taxes," explains El Mernissi.

With the collapse of the sector, several families find themselves in difficulty. With the conditions under which they have to operate for the reopening, they say they are in very bad shape. Yet they will have to deal with the restrictions imposed by the authorities, pending a vaccine that will allow them to operate freely, the same source specifies.