Morocco Earthquake: Tourism Industry Clashes with Media Coverage Amid Recovery Efforts

It was not an ordinary Sunday for Alice Darfeuille who was presenting the BFMTV special on the earthquake in Morocco on the evening of September 10, 2023. The host had a violent clash with a riad manager in Marrakech, Michaël Bizet, one of the guests of the Weekend direct. "Well, I’m going to tell you something. It’s a bit inappropriate to talk about me in relation to what happened. I’m going to cut it short. I went to Moulay Brahim earlier, and what I saw there, I’m still sick," he reacted to a question from the host about the earthquake, reporting that the inhabitants of this village in the High Atlas no longer had anything. "They were burying their dead. I bought yogurts, water and everything, the children rushed to my car and that made me sick. That’s what I want to say to the media!" he got angry.

The witness blames BFMTV for the way it is handling the powerful earthquake that has caused nearly 2,860 deaths according to the latest provisional report: "You’re scaring tourists a little bit. All the tourists are leaving and that’s not what you should be doing! In fact, tourists need to stay and turn their vacation trips into humanitarian trips! What’s clear is that you’re going to break the local economy! There will be losses, it’s a disaster... There are people dying in the Atlas, it’s not just Marrakech!" These remarks prompted the host to defend the channel’s teams present on the spot. "Ah, I didn’t see them! I didn’t see many media, I saw two: they were Chinese and Spanish. I didn’t see BFMTV!" reacted Bizet.

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Alice Darfeuille replies: "I can tell you that they are there since we have one of BFMTV’s special envoys, Dominique Mari, who was with us earlier in the province of Al Haouz which is particularly affected." Words that are far from convincing the former agent of Nabilla. "But what I want to tell you is that you are clearly being sensationalist. You’re scaring away tourists and you’re killing the economy of Morocco!" he yells. Alice Darfeuille is forced to call her interlocutor to calm down: "No need to get upset and I don’t think that’s what we’re doing on BFMTV! There’s no point in shouting, it’s counterproductive!" The adrenaline is rising. "Counterproductive?! Come with me to the Atlas instead of saying I’m counterproductive... What you’re saying isn’t good! You, you have your butt planted in a chair, me I’m going up there! I’m hanging up because you’re pissing me off!" Bizet still flares up, before abruptly hanging up.