BENI MELLAL"Nature and heritage"

BENI MELLAL

Beni Mellal is a city in Morocco with 170,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate) along the foot of the Middle Atlas Mountains, overlooking the Beni Amir plain. It is the capital of Tadla-Azilal region with 1.45 million inhabitants (2004 estimate) and an area of 17,125 km², Beni Mellal is the market centre for a region producing a variety of agricultural products, like oranges, olives, figs and other fruits, along with livestock, Beni Mellal is well-connected by highways to other large urban centres like Fez, Marrakech and Casablanca, Beni Mellal is largely a modern town. The main attraction is the 17th century kasbah called Bel-Kush, next to the city entrance, The Tadla-Azilal region has an advantageous location in the center of road network linking the major urban poles 

of the country (Casablanca, Marrakesh, Fes and Rabat).

TANGER city

TANGER

  Tangier, also Tangiers (Berber: Tanja, ⵜⴰⵏⵊⴰ, archaic Berber name: Tingi^[1],Arabic: طنجة Ṭanjah, Spanish:              Tánger, French: Tanger) is a city in northern Moroccowith a population of about 700,000 (2012 estimates). It lies                  on the North Africancoast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterraneanmeets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. It is the capital of the Tangier-TetouanRegion and of the Tangier-Asilah prefecture of Morocco.            

The history of Tangier is very rich due to the historical presence of many civilizations and cultures starting from the 5th century BC. Between the period of being a Berber settlement and then a Phoenician town to the independence era around the 1950s, Tangier was a refuge for many cultures. In 1923, Tangier was considered as an international status by foreign colonial powers, and became a destination for many European and American diplomats, spies, writers and businessmen.

The city is currently undergoing rapid development and modernization. Projects include new 5-star hotels along the bay, a modern business district called Tangier City Center, a new airport terminal and a new soccer stadium. Tangier's economy is also set to benefit greatly from the new Tanger-Med port.

Tangier's sport team I.R.T. (or Ittihad Riadi de Tanger) is the main football club and has the most followers. Tangier will be one of the host cities for the 2015 African Nations Cup soccer championship, played at the new Ibn Batouta Stadium and in other cities in Morocco

Bay of Tangier

          

Tangier has been reputed as a safe house for international spying activities.^[13] Its position during the Cold War and other spying periods of the 19th and 20th centuries is legendary.

Tangier acquired the reputation of a spying and smuggling centre and attracted foreign capital due to political neutrality and commercial liberty at that time. It was via a British bank in Tangier that the Bank of England in 1943 for the first time obtained samples of the high-quality forged British currency produced by the Nazis in "Operation Bernhard".

The city has also been a subject for many spy fiction books and films

TANGER CITY

TAZA city

taza in night

 Taza, in Arabic: تازة) is a city in northern Morocco, which occupies the corridor between the Rif mountains and 
Middle Atlas mountains, about 120 km east of Fez. It is located at 150 km from Nador, and 210 km from Oujda (east). It has a population of 144,000 (2004 census) and is the capital of Taza province.

Taza city, north-central Morocco. Located in the south of the Rif region right outside the mountain range on a narrow plain. The city is composed of two formerly separate towns built on separate terraces overlooking a mountain valley. The old-Taza town is at an elevation of 1,919 feet (585 m) above sea level and is surrounded by fortifications; the newer town, established by the French in 1920, is located in a fertile plain at an elevation of 1,460 feet (445 m). Fossil remains indicate that caves in the area were inhabited as early as the Paleolithic Period.

The city is located in a mountain pass known as the "Taza Gap", through which successive waves of invaders moved westward onto the Atlantic coastal plains of northwestern Africa. Taza was founded by Miknasa (imeknasen) Berbers. The Almoravid Berber empire took over Taza in 1074. They were replaced by the Almohad Berber empire in 1132. In 1248 the city was captured by the Marinids. Although Taza barred the route of Turks from Algiers seeking conquest in what is now Morocco, it fell to the French in 1914. The old town has barbican monuments, mosques, and a 14th-century mderasa (Berber Koranic school). Population in 1982 stood at 77,216. Population now estimated about 144,000.

 el baladi Swimming pool

 rass lma_ Falls

Moroccan tourism shows resilience

23/04/2012 

ayoub_fun01@hotmail.fr       elaarage ayoub 

The number of tourists arriving in the kingdom from abroad stagnated last year, according to the tourism ministry.For more than a year, Morocco's main tourist customers, particularly Europeans, have been opting for other travel destinations. But the sector has withstood the difficulties by re-orienting toward domestic travellers.

"This year, national tourism has seen growth of just 1% against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and the Argana attack," Tourism Minister Lahcen Haddad said in his first media appearance on February 21st.

This year is likely to be just as difficult because of the economic crisis affecting Morocco's main tourist markets. "2012 will be a challenging year, and we shall need to step up our efforts even more," the minister said.

Despite the global economic challenges, professionals in the trade stress the need to show more imagination and innovation to lure foreign tourists.

Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) chief Abdelhamid Addou commented that significant action was needed now to guarantee a major presence for Morocco on the main tourist markets.

"That's our role. But we also need Moroccan hoteliers to prove what they can do in terms of the rates they charge, the quality of service they offer, the events they put on, etc.," he said.

Every hotel has a sales policy which has been adapted to the problems in the market and to satisfy the law of supply and demand, said Catherine, a sales manager at a five-star hotel in Marrakech.

"As far as we're concerned, we've revised our room rates and also diversified our offer to Moroccan families," she explained. "We've also improved our internet communications, with a new platform providing information and online booking facilities."

"Of course, we've dropped our prices by 40% and sometimes by 50%, particularly last year which coincided with the month of Ramadan, with special meals and activities for children and their mothers," the manager said, adding that the strategy had been a success. More than 90% of the hotel's clients over that period were Moroccan.Another manager, who preferred not to be identified, said that hotels have been focusing on domestic tourists for more than a year, offering services that match the expectations of Moroccan families.

Journalist Rajae El Oufairi said that focussing on national tourists, with attractive offers, would be a solution for the sector under current market conditions. "In Morocco today there is a real emergent middle class, and one practical example of this is the opening of the Morocco Mall in Casablanca, which has seen record numbers of visitors."

The problem, she said, is the absence of tourist offers to match the expectations of the Moroccan middle class.

History of tourism

Tourism in Morocco  is well developed, with a strong tourist industry focused on the country's coast, culture, and 
history. Morocco has been one of the most politically stable countries in North Africa, which has allowed tourism to develop. The Moroccan government created a Ministry of Tourism in 1985.i
n the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, between 1 and 1.5 million Europeans visited Morocco. Most of
i these visitors were French or Spanish, with about 100,000 each from Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands. Tourists mostly visited large beach resorts along the Atlantic coast, particularly Agadir. About 20,000 people from Saudi Arabia visited, some of whom bought holiday homes. Receipts from tourism fell by 16.5% in 1990, the year the Gulf War began. In 1994, Algeria closed its border with Morocco after being falsely accused of the Marrakech attack, this caused the number of Algerian visitors to fall considerably; there were 70,000 visitors in 1994 and 13,000 in 1995, compared to 1.66 million in 1992 and 1.28 million in 1993. In 2008 there were 8 million tourist arrivals, compared with about 7.4 million in 2007 i.e. a 7% growth compared to 2007 30% of the tourists in 2008 were one of the 3.8 million Moroccans living abroad. Most of the visitors to Morocco continue to be European, with French nationals making up almost 20% of all visitors. Most Europeans visit in April and the autumn, apart from the Spanish, who mostly visit in June and August.