Is Morocco welcoming for travellers of colour and Black travellers?

I am proud to answer this one, because Morocco is an African nation with a genuinely mixed heritage — Amazigh, Arab, Andalusian and sub-Saharan African threads woven together over centuries — and that shows in the faces you see every day. Travellers of colour, including Black travellers, are welcomed here with the same generous hospitality extended to everyone, and the feedback I get back is overwhelmingly warm. Many guests of African and Caribbean heritage tell me they felt a particular sense of connection walking through the southern oasis towns and the old caravan cities, where the African story of Morocco is written into the architecture and the music.

I will be honest about one thing so it does not catch you off guard: in smaller towns and rural areas you may encounter curiosity. That can mean friendly questions about where you are from, the occasional lingering look, or a child asking for a photo. I understand why a traveller might brace for the worst when they read the word "stares," so let me be clear about what this is — it is interest, the same wide-eyed curiosity that any obviously foreign visitor attracts in a place that does not see many tourists, not hostility or unwelcome. A smile and a "salaam" almost always turns it into a warm exchange.

In the cities you will barely notice any of this. Marrakech, Casablanca, Fes, Tangier and Rabat are cosmopolitan, used to international visitors of every background, and you simply move through them as one more traveller among many. The hospitality industry I work with — riads, guides, drivers — hosts guests from every continent and treats everyone with the same courtesy. If you have ever worried that your skin colour would change the welcome here, the honest answer from years of sending guests is that it does not in any way that diminishes the trip.

My practical advice is small and applies to everyone: dress in the relaxed-modest way locals appreciate, learn a few words of Arabic or French, and travel with a guide who can fold you straight into the rhythm of a place. Travellers of colour often find Morocco one of the most affirming destinations precisely because they are visiting Africa, not observing it from a distance. Come with an open heart, expect curiosity to be friendly rather than fraught, and you will find a country that meets you with real warmth.