Security up, camel tours down
A Reuters report claims that Moroccan tourism has dropped in the past few weeks since the security level was raised to maximum. It also states:
More recently, roadblocks have been set up at the entrance to big towns and police in blue riot vans watch over Marrakesh’s biggest hotels.
What was humorous about the article, however, was the opening in which a man called Ibrahim claims that no tourists have approached him for a camel tour of Marrakech. Hmm, could that be because a camel tour of Marrakech is totally lame? If I wanted to ride a camel, I’d go to somewhere where they somewhat naturally occur, rather than Morocco’s third largest city, thankyouverymuch.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
The last time I was in Marrakech, I noticed some camels not far from the airport. I asked my friend WHY there they had camels there? I believe the answer went some like “for the tourists who are too lazy to go to the desert.”
July 28th, 2007 at 2:02 am
I was happy that the roadblock I used to see on my way to the beach has simply vanished. We were often terrorized to see those men carrying visibly guns and talky wacky
August 9th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
oh man, i just got back from essaouira… the police were out in force one the outside of essaouira and marrakech, but also even beni mellal. and all that meant really, is that the taxi driver was asked for more bribes. i finally got pissed and told one of the cops he was a thief, not a police officer. stupid me. it just delayed the trip another half hour while he told me a i had to give him 200 dirhams, and i refused until her realised i really wasn’t going to pay him. seriously, what are the cops on the road going to do? they’re going to find a bomb in a taxi’s trunk by “random” inspection? i certainly feel much safer…
there was a lot of camel crap on the essaouira beach, by the way…