Morocco: reason prevailed!

The month of Ramadan is finished - Aid Moubarak Said to all Muslims - and, to say the least, this month was very eventful: between the ‘no bikini’ signs posted on the beaches of Agadir by youngsters, the skirt story of Inezgane, that of the assumed homosexual lynched in the middle of the street in Fes, or of the young lunchers of Marrakech…we’ve had our share of surprises.

Every time, the population expressed itself and not always in the most tactful way.

Fortunately, civil society joined forced. Gatherings in the name of protecting our liberties took place all over the country.

Images of jubilant crowds circulated all over national and international channels, on social networks, and newspapers. A beautiful image of Morocco, the one we love, the one we defend, the one we hope to give to future generations.

Furthermore, in each of these events, the authorities and the Justice spoke.

The “no bikini” sign was quickly taken out by the authorities of Agadir, the case of the girls of Inezgane was dismissed, several harassers of the assumed homosexual were hauled up before Justice, at the same that the Prime Minister lost his case against Jennifer Lopez’s concert…

In sum, we can say that despite the clownish media stunts from some of our governing bodies, justice did its job and reason prevailed!

Now, intellectuals are awaiting and asking themselves fundamental questions concerning these isolated events that reflect a growing general opinion exacerbated by the headlines of some national newspapers that have sparked controversy on social networks like: “Rise of Radical Islam” or “Modernists-Conservatives: the war has begun.”

We must face the fact that these debates are societal issues on which we need to focus on to avoid being caught off guard.

Under all of this media coverage limbo, tourism is given bad light… the sector’s professionals painfully watch these anecdotes that hurt Morocco’s image and fear that this may have an even bigger impact on touristic arrivals.

Yes, because the situation is not very bright. Everywhere in the country, operators are complaining about the backlash of international events - the economic crisis on one hand, the terrorist attacks on the other - and this translates into a drop of activity that reaches close to 25% today.

We can say that we are different from our neighboring countries all we want, we can insist that our country strives for tolerance and living together, amalgams are being made nonetheless.

Adding to that is the deficiency of sufficient air transport on several destinations, the lack of a strong communications campaign to appease spirits, and the difficulty of establishing incentives to encourage tourists to come.

The sector is fighting to stay afloat as best as it can without any visibility and without a true crisis communications. We may have the desire to be optimistic, but, ineluctably, reality catches up to us. Tourism is unfortunately dependent on current international events.

Let hope then, maybe naively, that reason will prevail there again and that we’ll get back to a stable activity very promptly for the sake of the country and our tourism.

This morning, again, a deadly attack killed 28 people in Turkey…so this wish, for now, is only a distant dream…