Tour members, who spoke
Moroccan dialectical Arabic, classical Arabic and French, interacted with
Moroccans across the country who came from various economic and educational
backgrounds. Contacts
included re-established friendships from past Peace Corps service in Morocco.
Many Moroccans
remembered contributions of individual Peace Corps volunteers and warmly
received tour participants. The
group found tourist infrastructure quite well developed.
Cell phone use by Moroccans was ubiquitous and inexpensive.
Moroccans were generally
quite well informed, distinguishing between American tourists, American people,
the American government and the present administration.
Tourism was recognized
as an important component of the economy. Tourism
by Europeans was slightly down from previous years while tourism from the US was
seriously reduced. The group, as
well as the American tourists we met, did not report any negative incidents and
were not concerned about safety in Morocco.
Scale, quality and options for international tourism have increased over
time. Tourism by naturalized
Americans and Europeans of Moroccan ancestry and their children now compose an
important segment of Moroccan tourism, as does internal tourism by Moroccans.
It is a much more mobile society.
Moroccans deplored the
airplane and anthrax attacks in the US and noted that Moroccans were among the
2000 foreign victims at the World Trade Center.
The people we met were
not convinced that the US had demonstrated the links between the terrorists and
Bin Laden nor that bombing of Afghanistan would result in his apprehension. They
support humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
They wanted peace in the
Middle East, questioned the unstinted US financial and military support to
Israel, supported elements of the ongoing peace process and the immediate
establishment of a Palestinian state.
