Morocco’s tourism industry grapples with unclear security protocols despite a policy shift hinting at Morocco ditching requirements for marriage contracts.
Morocco’s justice minister whose statements threw hotel managers into a bureaucratic nightmare after he contested practices by security services who once a week descend upon hotel receptions, demanding the disclosure of clients’ personal data to confirm their marital status.
“The interaction is only verbal. Security requests them verbally, and the Minister of Justice denied the matter verbally, and we are the ones who remain in a confused situation in confrontation with the citizen,” hotel manager, Amin Zaghaoui told Hespress.
Caught in the middle, hotel professionals expressed frustration. One owner lamented that authorities simply dictate policies without clear guidelines, leaving them to face confused customers. A tourism expert acknowledged the Minister’s legal stance but highlighted the need for communication with security services who, in practice, have different requirements.
New information suggests a resolution: Security services have issued verbal directives to hotels, ending marriage contract requirements. This allows women to stay in hotels regardless of their marital status or residence location. Some hotels have even posted notices confirming this change.
One owner sees this as a positive step, particularly for women seeking temporary accommodation within their own cities. Additionally, it’s expected to boost domestic tourism and weekend getaways for couples.
While the requirement for a marriage contract has been lifted, the need for a ‘police registration form’ remains, indicating that a broader discussion on security protocols and hotel operations is still needed.
Morocco’s human rights movement has long fought against limitations on individual freedoms, particularly restrictions on women’s travel and hotel stays without husbands or guardians.
The Minister of the Interior had previously confirmed in an answer to a question in Parliament that “the Ministry has never issued any instructions to its competent departments to oblige the owners of hotels and tourist establishments not to allow women to stay in hotels in the cities in which they live.”
But the practice, like that of requiring marriage contracts, remains largely verbal.
The House of Councilors is expected to discuss this issue further with the goal of establishing clear procedures and communication between government bodies and the tourism industry.
But these discussions are unlikely to bring about concrete changes as long as Morocco’s decision-makers are still debating the penal code reform, under which article 490 stipulates that every sexual relationship between a man and a woman who are not married is a crime is punishable by one month to one year in prison.
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