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Morocco Cracks Down on Unlicensed Chinese Tour Guides to Protect Tourism Industry
Monday 13 January 2020, by
The Ministry of Tourism is determined to tackle the clandestine Chinese agencies that discredit tourism by employing fake tourist guides. Through a circular note addressed to the heads of travel agencies organizing programs for Chinese tourists, the supervisory authority calls for strict compliance with the specifications concerning Chinese tourists.
Since Chinese tourists are exempt from visas, they are flocking to the kingdom to discover the wonders it has to offer. But the downside is also the assault on the Moroccan tourism sector by many other Chinese who have improvised as tourist guides, who only think of their profits, thus causing serious harm to the professionals in the sector as well as to the sector itself.
It is to address the most urgent situation and limit the damage that the ministry has sent a circular in which it asks the heads of travel agencies to now appoint a Moroccan tourist guide to accompany the groups of Chinese tourists on visits to historical sites and monuments. Agencies that do not comply with the specifications will be definitively removed from the list of accredited travel agencies for the organization of the Chinese tourism market, reports leseco.ma.
The effectiveness of this measure poses some problems, according to some professionals in the sector who explain that the difficulty in implementation lies in the fact that the incriminated agencies operate from China and are even paid via the internet. But it’s already a good start, think others who hope it could bring some seriousness back to the sector.
According to a Moroccan tourist guide working with Chinese tourists, even if this measure seems salutary, few guides nationwide master the Chinese language. Barely forty speak Chinese, and about twenty have a very high level in Mandarin. A real obstacle that the supervisory authority must face, by opening more positions, organizing more competitions, but also by training national guides.
Achraf El Youbi is also a tourist guide. He speaks Mandarin correctly and remains optimistic about the possibility of regulating the sector that is falling into the hands of clandestine guides, who have no notion of tourism strategies. For him, the ministry is making more and more efforts to facilitate things for national guides. Better, he thinks, the language barrier can be overcome through willpower and determination. "The important thing is to disable the Chinese involved in illegal activities," the same source said.