Earthquake in Morocco: Impact on Travel, Tourism, and Human Relief Efforts

Welcome back. This is a special episode that we have today for the Destination Morocco podcast. Unfortunately, we're going to be talking about what just happened a few days ago in Morocco. The whole episode is going to be about earthquake. What's going on in Morocco, how is it impacting travel and how is it impacting the bookings that we have and the reservations that we have for a lot of the guests that are going to be traveling this month all the way to December 2023. And, by the way, september is the busiest month for us, so it's heavily impacting us as well. We have been receiving a lot of calls, emails, dms from people and we want to help from people having concerns and having a lot of questions. So we're here today, me and Ted. Ted, welcome back. I want to answer as many questions as possible and just give you the latest updates.

Yeah, this is well, we're recording this. The night before we had a regular episode scheduled to come out. We put that on hold. Of course, given what's happened and I know lots of people listening and watching it's probably all kinds of questions about what things are like in Morocco, and I certainly did too, just getting ahold of Asdeen over the last 24 hours or so, and I mean it's just incredible, the shock of this and so unexpected. Morocco is not used to having these kinds of earthquakes, are they.

No, not at all. The last severe earthquake that we had was 1961. It happened in the coastal city of Agadir and the casualties were 15,000. After that we have one in 2004,. A light one in the city of Husey-Mahouch is located in the Mediterranean part of Morocco and there was about 219 casualties. But this one in Mahakash is very different and very strong. The thing is, the earthquake did not hit in Mahakash, but it hit in the mountains and, unfortunately, because the severely affected areas are the villages close to that mountain, so we just in some villages. It just leveled everything and then people felt it throughout A major big part of Morocco because of Lanka, sahara, fass, rabat Salah. So the impact of the quake, the earthquake was massive.

Yeah, my first question to you was how, what kind of information you've had from your staff. How are they doing? Because you're in Houston but you've got your office. People in the listeners will know Sam, who's your office manager, and any other staff there. So how are they doing the office in?

Mahakash has been damaged so I'm not sure if we can go in or not. Sam, his house is damaged so he has been advised not to go inside Hasna. The same way, her house has been damaged as well. My staff, the rest of the team. I have Abdel. He's from Imlil but he lives in Mahakash, so his house is completely gone. His sister's house is completely gone. Abdel Wahad, abdel Stahmin, in his sawera. He's not hurt, luckily nothing happened, so just a little bit shaken. So my family, I'm very fortunate, very grateful no damages. Everybody that I know. No loss of life. I spoke with my dad in the mountains. He's good. My village has been affected and all the surrounding villages as well. You know what?

Well, that's a good point because people are wondering where your family's from and we've heard you talk a bit over the episodes about Tulawet in that area. But just to put it into context now, when we hear in the media for sure, and where the villages that are really affected, where your family is is a little bit further away from what I understand, yes, my family, most of them, live in Mahakash.

I have my sister and a robot, which is affected. I have my cousin in Kazablanca, which is affected as well, and then I have my dad in the mountains. Luckily nothing happened to the farm, to the house, but it's the villages where I go up, that's where we have our grandpa's house and also it's really sad in a way, because in the tour that we just finished, that's where we filmed the burger experience and now it's gone. So it's damaged.

Well, we want to touch on a couple things here. Maybe a shorter episode, and we're kind of just winging it here because we're all just responding and that's the thing. It's been roughly 48 hours as we're talking here since all this happened, but there's going to be more and more information, of course, over the next few days and the next few weeks. So what we really want to focus on here is what people can expect if they have a trip planned to Morocco, if they've already made a booking, if they're thinking about it, you know, is it even still possible to go? Of course it is, but we'll get into that. And the second thing is what people can do to help. And, just with what you and your team have organized thus far, there will probably be more information, you know, as you say, in the days to come. But that's the second thing, is what people can do to help. But let's start with, like, if you have people are already planning to go and they're, you know, thinking about is it still possible? What's your response to that if they're at that stage?

We have people already in Morocco that they have booked with us. They paid for their trip and the areas that are affected that's not where we at. I mean the city is still open, travel is still open to Morocco, the airports are still open, the hotels the ones that are not being affected or damaged in the old Medina, they are open. The other thing is the attractions like marjorail gardens are open. Other attractions are open. The news are open, so you can still go and do those side visits. So it's just old part of Morocco. So that's my fear is the news outlets when they show something, it creates a confusion between what they are showing versus what people thinking of what they're looking at. Yeah, you may be looking at villages, but they're writing Marrakech or this or that. So people are really, really scared.

So yeah, that's a good point because you know most of your tours. There's not people going out to these remote villages that aren't particularly thirsty. They're in Marrakech and as much as there's areas blocked off, a lot of it is still open. So when it comes to travel in the tourism it doesn't really affect those villages anyway.

No, it doesn't, because I would say 99% of the time we don't have any itineraries to those villages. We do a berber experience in Emilead. Other than that, we can switch it. If we have it booked, we can switch it. And, like I said, you know I get calls, texts hey, is my Marriad still open? Is my hotel affected? Most of them are not. We have not made any changes to any itinerary and if we do so, we will definitely reach out to the client and say, hey, you know, this really is not available or something happened. Then we can switch it easy. It's not an issue at all, but so far I have not seen any of it. All itineraries we have, they are 100% still valid, they are still good and they are not in the affected areas. Just to give you an example if, for example, I live in Houston, if you look at a zip code, I mean the city is pretty big. But if you look at a zip code, when you say Houston, but that specific zip code, if you don't specify people, they think the worst, they think the whole city is under water or flooded and stuff like that. And this happens to me because when we have, you know, hurricanes and stuff like that or floods. My family sees it on TV. They freak out, they think the worst and they call me and say, no, no, I live in this area, it's safe. What you guys are showing, what they are showing you, it's in the north side. You know the south side I'm good when I'm at. It's just a lot of people they don't know and that's what creates the anxiety and the panic and you know people that have gone with us are sending us messages their love and support, and we're very grateful. People that have booked with us the same. We're very appreciative and they're asking how they can help. But also, if you're planning to go to Morocco, go to Morocco. If you need help, reach out. If you have questions, reach out to us From the. Moment you get to Morocco car driver, local guides, amenities, radios, hotels, everything we'll take care of it for you. So we're here for you. If you want to help with the earthquake in Morocco, you can travel to Morocco and you help us and we help that community. And I mean tell you have gone with us and a lot of the listeners and the viewers have gone with us, so they see who we work with and the communities that we support and you know the parents and families that we help.

So yeah, that's true, it really goes a long way. You know when your driver or we had to address was our tour guide to a director and you know he talks about his family and as a house up in the in the mountains, I need to send him a message and see how he's doing, but that's just it. You really do make those local connections when, when you go with it, with you guys. So, it's important because you know, I mean, this is all very new, it's very raw, but still before long, you know, people will look to tourism as much as anything to bring, to bring the dollars back, for sure, but also to bring kind of the, the spirit, I think, and the energy and the, the joy that this country still it's still alive, it's still okay and as much as the damage is very intense and the casualties it's very intense, but it's also quite localized because you think about it, I mean, all the places like Casablanca and Fez and Tangier and and chef Shao and so on, they would have felt it, but we haven't really heard of any damage there. So they're very much still part of the itinerary and everything would be fine.

Absolutely absolutely. And you know, marrakesh is still booming, still buzzing. There's a lot of tourists there's, there's, there's a lot of foreigners there's. People are still enjoying the city. You know some part of it or, obviously, because of the earthquake, it's shut down, but for the majority, you cannot even tell. And I want to talk about the Moroccan people. I want to talk about the Moroccan spirit. Yeah, it's live and well, the people, the community with it, they stick together, the way they help each other. It's just, it's beyond incredible and I'm doing the same thing and this, this is really what has motivated me to To get involved and to do something about because I just I was a mess for the last couple days. I was paralyzed. I had no idea what to do, where to start, but I'm ready.

I'm ready to go, so good, well, let's get into that, because you know, I know you've got a lot of messages, people asking people have been on your tours and People listen to this show and, just in general, what can I do to help? What's the first step? And again, it's all very new here, but what are you starting to get lined up at this point where people can help?

That's a very good question. I I've never been involved with entities To help with money or get money or what you call it, fundraiser or donations from anybody. Everything that I have done is just me taking care of everything, silently. I don't I don't even like to be mentioned or talked about. But this case is very different. I have the contact information for the people that I'm working with. They have their you know, associations, bank accounts and they can reach out to them directly. They have any questions, they can reach out to me. They don't feel comfortable. I sure you. This is legit, it's not a scam. I'm not gonna scam you. They're not gonna scam you. These are my people. They grew up in front of me. We're all from the same village and we're everywhere. We are in Morocco, we're outside Morocco and you know it's. It's a good opportunity for us to Come as a team and work together as a team and make a difference in all these people's lives. This is very near and dear to me and it's very painful and it hurts, but I'll do whatever it takes for me. If I can help one person, I'm good. So mm-hmm.

So you've got a team of people's, this, your own kind of. Connection the network versus, or you're talking also about other organizations, maybe that you're in touch with there.

They, these guys, they. They reached out to me a few years ago. We are on the zero. We are a burger, we're from the same village. They reached out to me and said, hey, we're going to do an association in the village and I said, ok, I'll help and I did as much as I could, but one condition for me was I have to be nobody needs to know. Nobody can know that I am involved for many reasons. One of them is I don't want to sound in any negative way, but I want to admit it in the most positive way. When people they see that you contribute and you do help anywhere you go, they're going to start asking you for money, and I don't like that because it helps. I want to help as much as I can, but sometimes I just cannot, so that's why I do it behind the scene. Last time we did something was in 2021. They reached out to me and say, hey, we have an idea, I want to do a caravan for Truet. And they explained it to me and I was like OK, I mean, there were three other associations involved, plus the host association in my village, plus me. When I say me, it's really destination miracle. So they had them separated into families. So I said I can do all the families in both villages, total 70 for 74, I don't remember exactly the number.

And they needed blankets.

And I said OK so, but I just want to let you know, when we buy blankets through the network or the association, they are not retail price, they are literally a wholesale price. So I think it cost me probably around less than $10 per blanket. That's how much it cost me and we were able to do that and I didn't tell anyone for the longest time. But I don't mind sharing, and I have to share this not in terms of see what happened, not, but in terms of the people to give, because, exactly so, I knew it went really, really well. I had pictures, I have videos and I was extremely happy with it. So are you looking?

at doing something like that again.

Absolutely right. I said because a week ago, unfortunately, I gathered the team again. I have different teams. This is the team for just giving and stuff like that, and this is what I have said to them Part of ourselves will go to help the village. Let's plan for 2024 and 2025. So we started the planning already. We have the agenda, we have the goals, everything. Now, with the earthquake, it just kind of accelerated the process for us to help. I have a list of villages with me that are connected, affected in the aspects of Marrakech. There's a lot of them.

Just whatever they need, if they need clothes, if they need food, of course, or whatever they need, whatever they need, whatever they need.

And the goal is yeah, we're going to do it. Probably they said they want to start Wednesday, In a couple of days they want to take the caravan. That's going to be many caravans to go and we're not going to do just one. We'll do the first one, we'll do the second one, we'll do the third one, Because that's what it's going to take. I have the list of villages for me. Basically, I'm looking at 80 families that I'm going to support whatever they need. So it's very tough, it's very painful for those people the conditions, the way they live.

It's very harsh and if we can make a difference, Because even there, if they don't have the casualties quite as much, being a little further away, still a lot of damage, a lot of people lost their houses.

Yeah, if we don't do anything about it, the casualties will start happening because of the side effects of the earthquake. Now it's September, the weather is changing in the mountains Now it's cold at night. If you don't have blankets, you don't have cover. Trust me, eventually you'll get sick. So we have so many things planned for not just one village but for all those villages. And if we talk in numbers I'm not going to look at the list. It's not a complete list that I got. I need to get in bigger by the hour. So if you look at the number of people, we're talking probably 1,500-2,000 people.

Okay, spread out a whole number of villages in. That is correct.

yes, Some villages I see they have 16 families. They need help. Some villages have 22. So the bigger the village, obviously, the bigger the number is going to be, but that's my commitment to them.

So if people listening want to contribute, how do they go about doing that?

If they want to contribute. Please give me some time to figure it out. Give me a few days, because I don't want to do it the wrong way.

Okay, well, that's a good point. I mean, I'm glad you're open and honest about that. This is again. Once again, this is all just, it's all very new, it's all very raw. So what's important right now, then, is that you're starting to put the process in place, and if people listening and watching you know want to contribute and help with your direct efforts to making an impact in that particular area and the villages around where you were from, which certainly are affected, that information will come, I mean, hopefully, within the next few days. It's all going to move very fast, so stand by, but there's going to be ways to help and contribute.

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean I'm just, I'm very motivated and very inspired by the messages that I have received, by the calls, by the text messages, the emails. I mean people really, really care and we're very grateful, we are extremely grateful. And you know, if you cannot even help with anything, you know, just spread the word, maybe some of your friends, maybe some of your family members can help and it says, I mean I received messages from. I mean it's just, it's beyond incredible, it's, I mean, it's I'm glad.

Well, especially for those of us who've been. You know, as I say, we've we've met the people we can imagine, and especially in Marrakech, because you guys are based there. So a lot of the, all the tours really go there and a lot of the kind of activity and focus revolves around there.

So to think that this is the place that was so affected and and we know the people and we're thinking about them, so yeah, and it's you know, it's been tough for me, but it's been a lot and it has been and it will still be tough for a lot of the people that are affected directly in this, and we just want to make a difference. That's all we want to do.

Well, that reminds me, let's before we wrap up here. So again, this is still very unexpected, but the fact that we have coming up this week on September 13th, which was a live question and answer about planning travel to Morocco. We're certainly going to change a lot of the focus on that Now. We're still going to have the event If people do want to join in live and participate and ask any questions and, of course, top of mind is going to be well, what is the earthquake response? Maybe more updates about how things have evolved in the days since, and we'll talk a bit more about some of the opportunities to contribute and to help out. So as things evolve. So we are still going to have that event. It's the 12th the. Easter 9am Pacific on Wednesday, the 13th.

Yeah, I got a lot of questions about that as well, so people are already sending me questions that they want us to answer during the event, so I'll definitely forward those to you, okay.

Yeah, we're going to do our best to get as many updates out there and maybe change our schedule here with the podcast, maybe do some shorter updates as things evolve. We'll still have regular episodes for sure. But, yeah to say, it's all very fluid situation but we're all working together here to recover.

Thank you so much, ted. This means a lot to me.

We'll be back soon, I'm sure, with some more updates. So thanks everybody for tuning in and sending your thoughts and wishes and, yeah, we'll have more information soon.

Thank you Bye.