Moroccan Families Taking Loans for Summer Vacations

Here is a piece from Al-Bawaba about Moroccans borrowing money for summer vacations in order to prop up their social status.
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Moroccan families taking loans for summer vacations
Published July 4th, 2011 - 09:18 GMT

Moroccan took out loans totaling 83.3 billion dollars by the end of 2010, an increase of 7.1% from 2009

This summer, thousands of Moroccan families are visiting loan companies and specialized financing institutions to take loans for travel and vacations. Private loan companies use tempting publicity and advertising to attract millions of people in Morocco who want to spend their holidays in or outside the country, luring them with specials and requirements that seem easy but lead many families into an endless spiral of loans.

The phenomenon of travel loans has spread to many Moroccan families due to the steady rise of prices. Thousands of families in Morocco go to specialized institutions and companies who offer consumer loans, including entertainment and travel offers for the summer holidays, targeting those with limited or medium salaries who cannot afford to save a portion of their salary throughout the year for a comfortable holiday.

Summer holiday loans increase during the hot months. According to new statistics issued by the Professional Association for Financial Institutions in Morocco, people took out loans totaling 83.3 billion dollars by the end of 2010, an increase of 7.1% from last year.

Researcher in social economic science, Abdul Razak Blumblah, believes that Moroccan families aren’t embarrassed anymore to take loans to travel to distant cities within the country, or even to touristic countries such as Turkey for a few days. According to Plumblah, this rush of Moroccan families to take summer loans is due to many factors, such as globalization and the desire to be distinguished while socially similar to others.

As such, families take out loans which lead to a falling spiral of loans from summer to summer, because once families pay the bills on the original debt, summer has arrived again, and thus those who have limited salaries find themselves in a vicious circle which they cannot get rid of it easily.

He confirmed that this loan spiral creates a permanent worry to the debt seekers, impacting their social and moral relationships negatively, leaving them always thinking about solutions of their financial problems, and unable to give any productive and useful solutions to develop their private and general life.