BBC item on Morocco last night 6/9/07

[Shadow]

I believe there was an item on Morocco last night on the BBC TV with regard to recent terror attacks.

Did anybody see this and can anybody give me a brief summary as I am buying in Morocco?

 

[Karie]

Since the new king takes the leadership of Morocco, that the country is getting a lot more tourists and foreign investment. On the other hand this calls the attention of some islamic groups who prefer to see the country as a good base for them: this means a instable country rather than a developed one.

 

[Investy]

The markets of Turkey and the Red Sea / Egypt are unaffected by terror. People have short memories and life goes on.

The Moroccan King is a direct descendant of the Prophet and has total control, he even appoints the primeminister regardless of election outcomes.

The King, the Government, big business and most of all the people will benenfit hugely from tourism. The odd nutter with a long beard brings only woe upon his peoples as the Afghans found out.
In Pakistan where there are more pop music channels per head of population than anywhere else, many of the songs that have topped the charts in the last few months inluding a number one which held top spot for 13 weeks, have lyrics totaly against fundamentalism.

Morocco's tourism stratergy relies very heavily on many international developers, the likes of Emmar the worlds biggest for example. They would not be investing billions without having factored - in the current and future Political landscape.

In the end the most important factor investors need to frame in thier minds is the end user experience. The majority of end user tourists are faced with a number of holiday destinations within 3 hours of the UK (and less for Spainnish, French and Italian tourists).
I would say Morocco will present a unique close to home experience featuring very high quality developments, so the odd bomb simply wont affect the decision making process for all but the most fearful redneck pessimists.

 

[prolan]

Hi Shadow.

Indeed there have been some small attempts by a couple of loonies in Morocco to inflict some damage (especially in casablanca). So far Morocco has been fairly lucky in the scale of these attacts.

I would say that those attempts are not and should not change your investment strategy and this for two reasons:

a) nowadays nobody can say that certain countries are excempt from Terrorist attacs: Spain and the basque separatists, the Madrid bombings, bali bombings, attacs in Egypt, Corsican movements, bombings in istambul, the London and Glasgow attacs, the recent attacts in the Maldives all show that nowadays anytime, anywhere could be a target.

b) as these attacs increase in frequency, human nature somehow adapts and becomes less sensitive. As a result people do not suddenly stop holidaying after such an attac. I won't make any judgements on whether that is a good or a bad thing.

I would say there are enough other topics to research to decide where, and in what kind of property you invest, so do not get distracted by the potential danger of terrorism in reaching a decision.

Kind regards,
Prolan