Moroccan hotels have been left with 200 million dirhams of unpaid bills after the collapse of British holiday firm Thomas Cook, the head of Morocco's tourism federation told Reuters on Wednesday. «The loss of some 100,000 tourists ferried by Thomas Cook will take a toll on Morocco's tourism sector», Abdellatif Kabbaj said. «There is no insurance for this sort of risk and there should be one to cover Moroccan professionals from such a loss», he argued, adding that the government must help professionals from the tourism sector that would be impacted by the company's collapse. Indeed, the company operated two weekly flights from Manchester to Marrakech and collaborated with 50 hotels in Marrakech and Agadir, the British news agency. According to the same source, 1,300 Thomas Cook customers were stranded in Morocco after the firm's bankruptcy. A source from the ministry told Reuters, Wednesday, said that 180 of them left the country today. Indeed, a communiqué from the British Embassy in Rabat said that the first repatriation flight for Thomas Cook customers from Morocco departed, Wednesday, «as planned». For the record, in 2017, the British global travel company announced a partnership with the Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) during the World Travel Market, held in London. At the time, Thomas Cook promised to increase its influx of British tourists to Morocco from 70,000 to 400,000 by 2020.
