Morocco’s Hotel Industry in Crisis: Urgent Call for Government Aid Amid Pandemic

It is a real call for urgent solutions that the National Federation of the Hotel Industry (FNIH) is launching. This "SOS for survival" aims to raise awareness among the government, which does not seem concerned about the economic, social and financial difficulties of these players. Yet, at the very beginning of the pandemic at the national level, they graciously made their units available to the authorities to accommodate medical personnel and Covid-19 patients. Also, Lahcen Zelmat, president of the National Federation of the Hotel Industry (FNIH), has decided to sound the alarm: "Like other tourism activities, the accommodation sector, exhausted, is about to succumb once and for all to this crisis that has become fatal".

While understanding the validity of the restrictive measures, continues Zelmat, the tourist accommodation structures reproach the government for its indifference, seen as a refusal to support them in their survival. As proof, he points out, the promises of resumption for the summer of 2020, as well as for this year, are still awaiting realization, due to the measures in force, "while the hotels had mobilized all their staff and even hired temporary workers", not to mention that they have brought themselves up to the best standards of health certifications to preserve the health of customers during this crisis.

"What is now at stake is the viability of tourist accommodation establishments, their ability to maintain employment, honor their tax, social and financial commitments, maintain their assets and preserve the talented human resources trained for more than two decades," concludes the federation, which sees no positive prospect before April 2022.