The French Colonial Tourism Industry in Ifrane, Morocco

April 23, 2026

The French Colonial Tourism Industry in Ifrane, Morocco

Episode 232

The French Colonial Tourism Industry in Ifrane, Morocco

In this podcast, Reese Hollister discussed Morocco’s tourism industry under the French Protectorate (1912-1956) by looking at the creation of Ifrane in the Middle Atlas Mountains. Ifrane was a typical example of colonial hill station, a form of urban settlement in Europe’s colonies, high up and away from tropical environments and colonized subjects. This research project uses Ifrane’s rich and well-preserved visual culture to understand the hows of French colonial settlement and imperial promotion. Reese argues that this tourism industry was only made possible by a strong private-public partnership within the French empire.

A 2023 graduate of Manhattan College in The Bronx, Reese Hollister is a young historian who recently completed a Fulbright Student Research Grant in the Kingdom of Morocco. Reese is a lover of the Arabic language, participating in the SALAM Program in Oman to continue learning Modern Standard Arabic and the Fulbright Critical Language Enhancement Award to learn Moroccan Darija. As an historian still finding his niche, Reese is now shifting his energies towards studying Morocco and the Maghrib more broadly. He runs the YouTube channel, Historical Method Man, where he shares his undergraduate work that was “sitting in a drawer.” Reese will be commencing graduate studies at North Carolina State University’s Master of International Studies (MIS) program in Fall 2024.

This episode was recorded on May 31, 2024 Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).

Download the podcast: Feed / iTunes / Podbean / Spotify

Recorded and edited by: Abdelbaar Mounadi Idrissi, Outreach Director at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).

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Suggested Bibliography

Archives and Special Collections. Mohammed VI Library at Al-Akhawayn University. Ifrane, Morocco.

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Cleveland, T. (2021). A history of tourism in Africa: Exoticization, exploitation, and enrichment (Africa in World History Series). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

El Guabli, B. (2023). Moroccan other-archives: History and citizenship after state violence. The Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press.

Gallica - The Bibliothèque Nationale du France Digital Library. (n.d.). Online.

Geary, C. M. (1991). Old pictures, new approaches: Researching historical photographs. African Arts, 24(4), 36–98.

Goldsworthy, P. (2010). Images, ideologies, and commodities: The French colonial postcard industry in Morocco. Early Popular Visual Culture, 8(2), 147–167.

Hunter, F. R. (2010). Manufacturing exotica: Edith Wharton and tourism in French Morocco, 1917–20. Middle Eastern Studies, 46(1), 59–77.

Hunter, F. R. (2007). Promoting empire: The Hachette tourist in French Morocco, 1919–36. Middle Eastern Studies, 43(4), 579–591.

Ifrane, Centres d’Estivages, 1928–1934, Fonds du Protectorat. Archives du Maroc. Rabat, Morocco. A1552.

Ifrane, Centres d’Estivages, 1931–1933, Fonds du Protectorat. Archives du Maroc. Rabat, Morocco. A1534.

Kenny, J. T. (1995). Climate, race, and imperial authority: The symbolic landscape of the British hill station in India. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85, 694–714.

Miller, S. G. (2013). A history of modern Morocco. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Ossman, S. (1994). Picturing Casablanca: Portraits of power in a modern city. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Peyron, M., & Ross, E. (2014). Hiking and walking guide to Ifrane and the Middle Atlas. Ifrane, Morocco: Al Akhawayn University Press.

Venema, B., & Mguild, A. (2003). Access to land and Berber ethnicity in the Middle Atlas, Morocco. Middle Eastern Studies, 39(4), 35–53.

Vincent, P., & Warf, B. (2005). Claret and couscous: The symbolic townscape of a Moroccan mountain resort. Geographical Review, 95(4), 594–606.

Wright, G. (1987). Tradition in the service of modernity: Architecture and urbanism in French colonial policy, 1900–1930. The Journal of Modern History, 59(2), 291–316.

Young, P. (2024). Dislocations of empire: Colonies de vacances and estivage in Protectorate Morocco, 1912–1956. Journal of Tourism History, 1–25.

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