Aesthetic tourism in Morocco is not a new trend. Thanks to a few pioneering surgeons, the country was, as early as the 1950s, a popular destination in the field. Currently, although the Kingdom does not show a clear desire to develop this category of tourism, foreign patients represent a large part of the clientele of certain specialized clinics.
You just have to type “the best cosmetic surgeon in Morocco” to come across a long list of doctors and forums where patients praise their merits and exchange advice on making the right choice. Whether they are Moroccan, but also foreigners, there are more and more people around the world who today wish to reshape their silhouette, rejuvenate their face or otherwise. And as the demand is there, the supply follows.
A long tradition
In Morocco, cosmetic surgery is not new and neither is the tourism that goes with it. Big names in the profession are associated with it such as Dr Cochain, Dr Lentillhac, creator of the first school of cosmetic surgery in Morocco, and, of course, the very famous Dr Burou who already in the sixties, received at his office patients from all over the world. Casablanca was the capital of plastic surgery in the 1950s, 1960s and even the early 1970s. Since that time, several generations of surgeons have passed the torch.
Today, these tourists of a special kind return again to Casablanca to benefit from the expertise of its doctors and the gentleness of its sun. “The Cochain clinic was the first of its kind in Morocco, but also in Africa. In general, most patients at that time were wealthy and elite. This subsequently resumed more strongly from 1992 or 1993. Already at the time, we were campaigning for the country to move towards aesthetic tourism. But others have got ahead of us like Tunisia which mainly targets Europeans from around the Mediterranean,” explains Dr El Hassan Tazi, plastic surgeon, inventor of a liposuction technique patented and protected throughout the world, member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
A particularly pampered foreign clientele
Currently, there are an estimated hundred doctors who treat and operate on foreign patients. The most commonly performed interventions are liposuction, gynecomastia, breast augmentation, etc. “The face is a big chapter in tourist cosmetic surgery. Requests mainly concern eyelid surgery, cosmetic rhinoplasty, facelifts and, exceptionally, cosmetic ear surgery. Personally, depending on the season, I have between 70 to 80% of my patients who come from outside Morocco,” explains Dr. Tazi.
The main emitting countries are Algeria, France, Spain, Italy, Canada, the United States, the Gulf countries, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Australia, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark… And for several years now, requests from African patients have been exploding. A large number of them come to Morocco to have surgery. “I have had patients from Sudan, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. And it’s only increasing. I think that if we made it easier for them to obtain visas, even more of them would come. As is the case in India which has become one of the leading destinations in this sector. It has created a so-called “category M” visa, dedicated to medical tourism, which simplifies entry into the country for patients and their companions. We have been calling for a real medical tourism policy for almost 20 years now. However, nothing has been done and we are still at a standstill. No in-depth work is carried out by the Ministries of Tourism, Transport and Health for the arrival of these patients. However, a medical tourist brings in the country between 5 to 10 times more than a normal tourist. All the figures around the world prove it: billions of dollars are invested each year in medical tourism and the country that takes a large part of the pie is Turkey. In the end, we only collect the crumbs,” laments Dr Tazi.
An underexploited sector in Morocco
Indeed, the Moroccan medical tourism ecosystem is still little valued and we observe more isolated strategies on the part of the actors than the outline of a real national policy. However, given the assets and skills that Morocco has in the field and its reputation abroad, medical tourism can be a source of income and job creation both in the health and healthcare sectors. tourism.
According to the World Bank, health tourism is worth $40 billion annually worldwide, including $10 billion in the Middle East region alone. According to a Deloitte study, since the 1980s, health tourism has grown by more than 10% each year. In another report released by VISA and Oxford Economics, the medical tourism industry was valued at a staggering $439 billion, with a projected growth rate of up to 25% year-on-year over the next ten years .
The reasons that push these people to come to Morocco are mainly financial. In fact, the prices of care and operations are 30 to 40% cheaper than in France, for example. In addition, according to Dr Tazi, treatment is faster and is carried out on a human and non-industrial scale, as may be the case in Tunisia or Turkey. “This is what sets us apart from these countries and what makes our international reputation. We have a certain reputation and therefore beyond the financial aspect, we are recognized for our professionalism. And it is precisely for this reason that until now we have never had any conflicts with associations, unions or European medical orders. On the contrary, our relationship is supported and maintained with mutual respect,” he insists.
In Morocco, the prices of cosmetic operations and treatments are 30% to 40% cheaper than in France, for example.
Dental care, a specialty in high demand
Another specialty which has also been increasingly popular over the past ten years by medical tourists is cosmetic dental surgery. They flock from everywhere to do what we call “smile rehabilitation”. This includes veneers, crowns, whitening… “I receive on average 10 to 20 foreign patients per year who mainly come from France, Switzerland, the United States, Mauritania and Senegal. Contact is generally made via the internet or via recommendations from another patient. We ask that we be sent the photos, the x-rays by email and on this basis I make an estimate of the price and I establish the “approximate” treatment plan, because it is only when we meet the patient that we can really judge whether or not the surgical procedure is useful. And this is something I emphasize when I talk to patients. », explains Dr Mohamed Benchekroun, dentist, endodontist, implantologist and periodontologist in Casablanca. Thus, Morocco is today considered a medical tourist destination of choice thanks to the improvement of its medical plateau and its stability. As a result, it is one of the four leading medical destinations in Africa, alongside Tunisia, South Africa and Egypt. It is also ranked 31st among 41 major global destinations and 3rd among French-speaking countries according to the 2016 report from the industry's leading journal, Medical Tourism IndexTM (MTI)*. “Given the importance of medical tourism and its contribution to the image of the Kingdom and the growth of the economy, it is appropriate to promote the platform, “Morocco, Capital of Health Tourism”. We have everything to gain,” concludes Khalil Daffar, General Director of Africa Medical Tourism Expo. Word to the wise…
