Morocco: the new tourist eldorado | Capital | M6

Morocco wants to attract 10 million tourists by 2010. An insane gamble. In just three years it will have to seduce 4 million more than it does today, almost double. How can it get them to come, how can it accommodate them?If the Moroccan government can keep its promises, it means 48 million Euros?just from tourism?that will drop into the coffers of the state. And that’s not all: it means that 600,000 new jobs will be created.How is the Moroccan government going to rise to the challenge?From jet-set parties in Marrakech to the traditional camel trek into the desert, the diversity on offer to the tourist matches the wide cultural divide that can be seen in Morocco today. The government is spreading its net wide in order to attract every type of tourism: luxury, hip, traditional.The accent, however, is firmly on mass tourism, the most profitable kind. And to do this, Morocco is aiming high. Six seaside resorts will spring from the earth in the coming years. How do you build a town out of nothing? That’s what we went to see in Saidia, on the Mediterranean coast: a ghost town on a deserted beach. The whole country is in the grip of property fever. In Marrakech prices are soaring, luxury residential complexes are sprouting like mushrooms; the city of Fez is selling its medina.Can you still get a good deal in Morocco? And who is profiting from this property boom?