Ahmed Nait of Travel Link

Yacout Info: Travelink has been working for many years as a travel agency, how are you doing now what is the extent of your operations?

Ahmed Nait: We have been operating since 1993 and and we specialise in high end luxury tourism from the Anglophone markets, 70 per cent of our business is coming from the UK and 20 percent from the USA, and 10 per cent from Germany and Australia. We concentrated on upmarket tourism from the very beginning and we represent 30 operators from the UK. We are the only travel agent to represent so many tour operators from the UK all promoting high end quality tourism.

Q: Do you work on golfing vacations?

A: We do , we are not a specialist golf travel agency but we belong to the International Association of Golf Tourist Operators and we do organise golfing vacations of our clients when they ask for them.

Q: Do you concentrate only on Marrakech or do you offer your clients a choice of other locations in Morocco ?


A: Our head office is in Marrakech but we also have offices in Fes and Tangier. We are the only tour operator in have an office in the medina of Fes. We do this because sometimes our clients are older and need back up on site which includes brochures and an email facility on site. We also have representtatives in Essaouira and Agadir and in Erfoud.

Q: Marrakech attracts 50 per cent of the tourists to Morocco. Do you think that balance is going to change so that other locatuions in Morocco get more tourists?

A: Tourism in the South of Morocco will grow. The problem at the moment is that we do not have enough 5 star hotels in the region. Many Americans want to do round tours starting in Rabat and Casablanca , Meknes and Fes where we have good quality hotels but if they go to the Sahara there are not enough five star hotels yet, there is the one in Skoura, Les Jardins de Skoura, and the Berber Palace in Ouarzazate. This is why we have a camp in Merzouka , these long distance trips when they drive from Fes did someluxury stops especially when the clients are older-they need some comfort as well as experiencing the Sahara and the desert. We have a camp aslo at Rachida, this compensates for the lack of five star hotels in the region.

Q: The Charity work that you do with the British Moroccan Society where you did an outstanding job on Talastate with the learning centre is well known. What is your policy on charitable support for local communities in the Atlas?


A: Nowadays tourism is no longer just about tourism it also extends to sustainable and responsible tourism and taking care of the communitiesn that tourists visit so that they benefit from their participation in the tourism industry. There are many baby boomer tourists now in their 60's who want to help these communities they visit on holiday. There is a huge opportunity for village communities in the Atlas Mountains to benefit from this . There is a trend for volunteer tourism so we help the tourists to help others in the village communities. We help by approaching villages and assessing their needs. The most important factors in these villages are womenand children. Women are the future of Morocco, if they are educated and they pass this on to their childresn they will have a better future in Morocco. This is why we opened the school in Talastate. This has been an important development for the children but also the women who go there to learn to read and right. We also helped them to develop their potteries so they generated their ownfinancial back up to support the local economy and we introduced electrically heated kilns for the potteries so that they did not use wood fires and thus we helped to protect the environment and make their industry more sustainable.

It is also important forlocal hotels and establishments like Kasbah Tamadot and Kasbah Toubkal to support the local communities by providing training for skills like pottery and weaving so taht the local economy grows and communities are able to benefit from tourism in the region. I(t also encourages tourists to contribute to the welfare of communities they visit by encouraging the development of local businesses.This is what sustainable tourism is all about. Tourists are keen to contribute towards the development of the communities in the Atlas Mountains.


Q: The British are now the largest tourist groupvisiting Marrakech, do you see this trend continuing ?

A: the British have a long history with Marrakech, including of course of course Winston Churchill and later the Rolling Stones , the song " Marrakech Express " was written following their train journey from Tangier to Marrakech . British tourists are the most enthusiastic of our customers theystay in luxury hotels,high end Riads and boutique hotels. These are regular customers for Marrakech and they love the culture.The French and the Spanish mostly go to Agadir and Tangier-the seaside , the British aremore enamoured of culture and thus they come to Marrakech and Fes. Marrakech is a fantastic destination and the old problems of haselling have largely died down through education of the population.Also many love Marrakech so much that tehy keep returning and even retire here.

We also need to diminish pollution in the city and to educate someof the taxi drivers and cut back on the number of mopeds in the medina because they really pollute the atmosphere and also a hasard for older tourists.