Since the beginning of this summer 2024, tourism activity in Morocco has been facing several problems that risk spoiling the holidays of several tourists and players in the sector.
Among these obstacles, a “galloping” inflation which has led to a “record” increase in prices, particularly in cafes and restaurants in the Kingdom, reports the Moroccan media Bladi.
This situation has a significant impact on these establishments, which have denounced, in a letter addressed to the Competition Council, “the increase in the prices of raw materials and basic products over the past 2 years”.
Cafes and restaurants in Morocco: professionals and tourists face a “record” increase in prices
According to these professionals, the situation is becoming “unbearable”, both for them and for their clients, estimating that this causes a “total” loss of profits for some and a drop in revenue of up to 40% for others.
For restaurateurs, a kilo of red meat, which costs 60 DH, is now sold at 140 DH, a kilo of white meat, which costs 11 DH, has gone up to 28 DH, while butter has climbed from 35 to 128 DH.
Olives, for their part, are selling at 40 DH while their price was 12 DH, while olive oil, which was selling at 25 DH, has gone up to 110 DH per liter.
Finally, cafeteria owners are complaining about the prices of coffee and fruit, which have ” doubled in less than three months,” the same source said.
Alongside this dizzying rise in prices, professionals in the sector must face an increase in the municipal tax relating to the occupation of public space dedicated to terraces.
Thus, this situation, in addition to constituting a brake on commercial activity, risks also harming the attractiveness of the country as a tourist destination in the eyes of foreign tourists, MREs , as well as locals.
