Rabat, September 7, 2025 — The Europe Today: Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism has come under parliamentary scrutiny after awarding contracts worth MAD 147 million ($14.7 million) to evaluate service quality in hotels and other tourism accommodation facilities.
The project, launched by the Tourism Engineering Company, is intended to support the implementation of a new classification system under Law 80-14, which updates the criteria for ranking tourism establishments. Evaluations will rely on “mystery shopper” visits, where trained staff anonymously assess the full customer journey from booking to departure.
However, lawmakers have criticized the high cost of the initiative. In a written question to Tourism Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor, one parliamentary representative argued that Morocco could have adopted digital evaluation tools linked to the country’s National Digital Morocco 2030 Strategy, offering a more affordable and efficient alternative by gathering customer feedback through national platforms.
The overall project has been divided into four separate contracts:
- MAD 48.4 million ($4.84 million) for luxury and five-star hotels,
- MAD 50.3 million ($5.03 million) for four-star hotels in the Marrakech-Safi region,
- MAD 28.8 million ($2.88 million) for other four-star hotels nationwide, and
- MAD 20.3 million ($2.03 million) for three-star establishments.
Critics are questioning not only the expense but also the execution conditions of these contracts, urging the creation of a comprehensive national database to capture real-time customer feedback.
The debate highlights the challenge Morocco faces in balancing quality assurance in its vital tourism sector with fiscal responsibility, while also advancing its broader digital transformation agenda.
