Morocco for dummies?

You can imagine the excitement in The View from Fez office when Tigga discovered this little gem:

People who purchase property for sale in Morocco will be able to enjoy low living costs, new research has revealed. According to a study by Teletext Holidays, food and drink in the north African country costs much less than in most of Europe.

Figures showed that on average, a pint of beer can be purchased for just 51p, while a three-course meal is priced at just over £10. By contrast, a beverage in Spain would cost £1.56 on average and a meal would set people back about £17.50. This may be one reason for the growing popularity of Morocco among holidaymakers and second home buyers.

Commenting on the findings, Ash Makkar of Teletext Holidays said: "Interest in countries such as Morocco has grown significantly." He added that this showed that people were becoming more adventurous when choosing where to go on holiday.

Official figures recently revealed that during 2007, Morocco attracted more than seven million foreign leisure travellers.

Breaking news provided by Real Estate TV

You can imagine our excitement! So we took bets as to how such a story could come into existence and why any self-respecting sub-editor or even lowly journalist would bother.

Helen Ranger said it was a slow news day and the sub-editor made it up. Amal argued that it was from the pen of a work experience student and accidentally got into the "publish pile". Mouanis reckoned that the price of beer was not a good enough inducement to come to a Moslem country. Sandy sat in the corner and pondered the motivation for even doing such "research". And we all wanted to know how one took a "teletext holiday" - the general consensus was "by turning off the television".

In any case the good folk at the Real Estate TV Office need to get out more - there are real stories about why people visit Morocco and why they invest in property. The price of beer compared with Spain is not one of them.

Ps. We thought about providing a link so you could see the "story" for yourself, but decided that you will just have to trust that we didn't make it up!

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news