Soaring Coastal Prices Drive Moroccans to Consider European Vacations

A summer that rhymes with the high cost of living. Many Moroccans have filed complaints with the Consumer Protection Association to denounce the soaring prices of food and various services in tourist cities, particularly coastal cities, since the start of the summer vacation. Testimonies circulating on social networks show that food prices in certain coastal tourist areas exceed those of certain European countries. "This represents greed exercised towards the Moroccan consumer," denounce Moroccan Internet users.

"The problem of high prices has existed in Morocco for a long time, but in coastal tourist cities, there is an increase compared to other cities. [...] although prices are subject to the law on freedom of prices and competition, the merchant must display them to consumers, and it is the right of the Moroccan citizen to file a complaint against the store owner with the competent authorities if the latter does not do so," said Hassan Chotibi, president of the "Tamsna" Association for Consumer Protection, to Alayam24, stating that his association has received several complaints from Moroccan citizens regarding the high prices in coastal tourist cities. "All these factors do not contribute to encouraging domestic tourism in Morocco, because this greed and high prices do not create a favorable environment to attract national and foreign tourists, which pushes most Moroccans to consider spending their holidays in foreign countries like Spain, Italy and Portugal," he explained.

According to Chotibi, strict supervision must be imposed on all parties providing services to Moroccan citizens and also to foreign tourists, in order to put an end to this situation. "The problem lies in supervision, because if the competent authorities launched campaigns against stores, restaurants and also cafes to display prices, the number of complaints, which has increased considerably since the start of the summer vacation, would decrease," he added. He also advocates the implementation of a series of means, "the most important of which is the provision of developed infrastructure with regard to hotels, restaurants, cafes and roads".