How to Support Morocco Earthquake Survivors—and Where to Donate

The battle of budget hotel brands is now a war that extends across the Atlantic Ocean.

After its deadliest earthquake in more than 60 years, Morocco is calling on investors to inject capital into its tourism sector, with opportunities ranging from developing beach resorts to building theme parks. The North African country is seeking to double the amount of investment in its tourism industry to $2 billion a year by 2026, Imad Barrakad, chief executive of the Moroccan Agency for Tourism Development, told The National on the sidelines of the Future Hospitality Summit in Abu Dhabi.

While Captain Sandy Yawn is at the helm of a super yacht for months at a time, she relies on an everyday, tried-and-true method for keeping in touch with loved ones on land: FaceTime

Several destinations heavily dependent on tourism have been devastated recently by natural disasters, including Maui and Morocco.

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This month’s earthquake in Morocco claimed thousands of lives and left many homeless, including workers in the tourism sector, who are sleeping in empty hotel ballrooms or apartments rented out by their employers, according to the properties we spoke to.

“My family is safe,” our tour guide Sara Chakir said as we huddled in the streets outside Fez’s medina, waiting for aftershocks until the early hours. Morocco’s 6.8 magnitude earthquake had struck last Friday, 350 miles away in the Al Haouz region of the High Atlas mountains at just after 11pm. It was enough to send our riad swaying, but there was no apparent damage to people or place. It was only in the morning that the scale of destruction elsewhere was clear. Another tour guide, Hossain ait Mhand, said: “My family is fine, but others in their town are not so lucky – homes have been flattened.”

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The Kasbah La Dame Bija guesthouse in Morocco’s picturesque Ouirgane Valley escaped unscathed from an earthquake that devastated the area, but the owner’s bookings collapsed and he worries about whether the region can revive its tourist appeal.

A tourist climbed onto a historic statue in Brussels, Belgium, on Sunday and accidentally broke a portion of it, according to a report by the local newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

Seen from Paris’s Pont de la Tournelle, the eight-story facade of the landmark restaurant La Tour d’Argent looks about the same as it did when its third-generation owner André Terrail grew up there in the 1980s, deploying toy parachutists into quayside traffic. But the interior is no longer indifferent to the 21st century: Late last month, La Tour d’Argent reopened its doors after a yearlong renovation led by the Paris-based architect Franklin Azzi. “It’s my Tour,” says Terrail, who took over following his father’s death in 2006. “The same, but more exacting, more thoughtful.” The new look draws on the outsize history of the classically French fine-dining institution, which has been serving diners since 1582, taking particular inspiration from the streamlined motifs of its Art Deco era. On the seventh floor, the redesigned restaurant — overseen since 2020 by executive chef Yannick Franques — functions more than ever as a theater. The airy dining room, in shades of indigo and silver, looks onto an open-plan kitchen and an elevated platform where the restaurant’s signature pressed-duck dish is prepared nightly. Upstairs and downstairs are new bars suited to less formal occasions: Le Bar des Maillets d’Argent, an all-day lounge with a fireplace, andLe Toit de la Tour, a rooftop terrace. Given that it has the welcoming air of a boutique hotel, it’s no wonder that the building can now host overnight visitors in a private apartment on the fifth floor, complete with a touch of Scandinavian-style minimalism attributable, in part, to Terrail’s Finnish mother.

Morocco is a family-centric, peaceful country with genuine warmth and love for children of all ages. It's home to cultures where large families are standard – a family of five to six children, and multi-generational homes are considered the norm. It's not unusual for people you've just met to offer kisses, hugs, and cadeaus (gifts) for your kids. Traveling with kids to Morocco can open doors to unique experiences, connecting you deeper to its people and your own family.