Morocco Launches Massive 147 Million Dirham Mystery Shopper Program to Elevate Tourism Quality

Acceleration for the organization of mystery visits in all tourist establishments. The Moroccan Society of Tourist Engineering has launched a large-scale market to evaluate the quality of services in tourist accommodation establishments, for a total cost exceeding 147 million dirhams. The specifications of the market provide information on the objective of the mystery visits: to verify the compliance of the establishments with the quality of service criteria, in particular targeting the first classification operations of new hotel establishments, reclassifications or renewals after the expiration of the legal validity, as well as periodic checks to ensure the continuity of compliance.

The tenders launched by the Tourist Engineering Society are divided into four markets. The first concerns the evaluation of "luxury" and "five-star" establishments, for an amount of 48.4 million dirhams, while the second is dedicated to "four-star" establishments in the Marrakech-Safi region, for an amount of 50.3 million dirhams. As for the third market, it covers the evaluation of other "four-star" establishments nationwide, for 28.8 million dirhams. Finally, the fourth aims to evaluate "three-star" establishments for 20.3 million dirhams.

What about the categories to be evaluated? There are four of them: hotels (luxury, five-star, four-star, three-star), club hotels of the same categories, tourist residences, guest houses, riads and kasbahs. This evaluation concerns all establishments classified in these categories, whether they are independent or affiliated with hotel chains. The evaluated hotels must comply 100% with the mandatory criteria, and the complementary criteria of which at least 70% must be met.

The operating classification is granted to hotel establishments for a period of seven years, renewable after a new evaluation according to the updated criteria, it is specified. In the event of non-compliance during one of the control operations, the establishment may be subject to withdrawal or modification procedures of its classification. The organization and supervision of these studies is entrusted to the Moroccan Society of Tourist Engineering. It is also responsible for analyzing the results of the mystery visits and preparing detailed reports submitted to the competent authorities for validation or revision of the classifications.

Slowly but surely, Morocco is strengthening the competitiveness of the tourism sector, improving the customer experience in Moroccan hotel establishments, aligning the tourism offer with international standards and strengthening Morocco’s image as a high-end and quality destination.