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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: MOROCCO QUAKE TOURISM
HEADLINE: Tourism Another Casualty of Morocco’s Earthquake
TEASER: Visitors to the High Atlas Mountains boosted incomes and jobs in an impoverished region
PUBLISHED AT: 09/26/2023 AT 10:20AM
BYLINE: Lisa Bryant
DATELINE: Amizmiz, Morocco
VIDEO EDITOR:
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: LR, pcd
VIDEO SOURCE: VOA Original
PLATFORMS: WEB _x_ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 1:53
VID APPROVED BY: MAS
TYPE: TV/R
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
[[The earthquake that killed nearly 3,000 people in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains this month also took a toll on the region’s flourishing tourist industry — a key source of jobs and income. The raft of tourist cancellations adds to the many challenges facing impoverished mountain communities as they begin the difficult task of rebuilding. Lisa Bryant reports for VOA from the Moroccan town of Amizmiz.]]
((NARRATOR))
Tourists from around the world come to the High Atlas to discover its rugged beauty and the ethnic Amazigh, or Berbers, who live here.
((RADIO VERSION: Abdessamad Elgzouli is a local tour guide.]]
((Abdessamad Elgzouli, Tour Guide – MALE IN ENGLISH))
“It’s the traditional way of living, you know about this hospitality of people in mountains. It’s enormous. // So, when they come and meet people smiling and they are welcome in their house — this affects a lot tourists.”
((NARRATOR))
The earthquake has demolished many mountain villages that charmed Elgzouli’s customers and parts of Amizmiz where he lives — a jumping off point for exploring the High Atlas.
Elgzouli and his neighbors sleep outside, fearful of returning to their earthquake-damaged homes.
Tourism was a windfall for this impoverished and underdeveloped region.
The quake has changed that.
((Bruno Dubois Roquebert, Maroc Lodge Owner – MALE IN ENGLISH))
“Of course, the impact is going to be big, enormous. Because today and for certain period of time there won’t be no one. No one.”
((NARRATOR))
French hotel owner Bruno Dubois Roquebert opened the first hotel in Amizmiz in 2005.
((RADIO VERSION: That was French hotel owner Bruno Dubois Roquebert, who opened the first hotel in Amizmiz in 2005.))
The quake spared his lodge and staff. Old guests are contacting him to offer help.
Tour guide Elgzouli’s future is uncertain. But for now, he’s a man with a mission — he helped to organize this camp for people left homeless by the quake.
((Abdessamad Elgzouli, Tour Guide – MALE IN ENGLISH))
“I’m doing my best to help. And for the future, it’s a mystery and I don’t know, and I don’t think about it.”
((NARRATOR))
His family survived the earthquake. For him, that’s what matters in the end.
((Lisa Bryant, VOA News, Amizmiz, Morocco))
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