Morocco is one of the few countries where being paid to guide tourists is a licensed profession, and it is enforced. So this question deserves a real answer rather than the usual "you don't need anything, just start".
The real answer is that it depends on what you are actually being paid to do, and there are two different activities here.
Two activities, and only one of them is licensed
Guiding is a service about the place. You take a visitor through a city, a monument or a site and you interpret it for them — history, heritage, what they are looking at. You are hired for expertise. Morocco licenses this under Law 05-12, unlicensed guiding has been banned since 2007, and the carte professionnelle is checked at monument entrances.
Companionship is a service about the time. Someone pays for your company. You eat together, you walk, you talk, they get an afternoon with a person who lives here instead of a monument circuit. Platforms built entirely on this have operated for well over a decade across dozens of countries without ever being treated as guiding, because it is not the same service.
Most of what happens on Roavi is the second one. You are not hired as an authority on the Saadian Tombs. You are someone's friend in your city for a few hours, and you set your own rate for your time.
That distinction is real, not a word game. But Morocco's definition of guiding is broader than most, the tourist brigade is genuinely active, and over a long afternoon the two can shade into each other. So it is worth being deliberate.
Where the line sits in practice
Things nobody needs a permit for, and never have:
- Coffee, a meal, a family dinner
- Walking around your own neighbourhood together
- Helping someone shop as a friend, taking nothing from any shop
- Language exchange
- Cooking together, a craft session, a workshop at home
- Answering questions about your own city
Things that are guiding, and where the licence applies:
- Taking paying visitors through monuments, museums or archaeological sites
- Leading a group on an itinerary you sold as a tour
- Presenting yourself as a guide, or letting a traveller believe you are one
- Regional circuits — the Sahara, the Atlas, a multi-city loop
The practical advice for anyone unlicensed is short. Do not sell tours or itineraries. Do not call yourself a guide. When the plan involves a monument or a site, let them go in with a licensed guide and meet them afterwards — that is a better day for them anyway. And know that the approaches to the Marrakech and Fes medinas are exactly where the brigade works, because that is where faux guides have hustled tourists for thirty years.
None of that is a loophole. It is the difference between two jobs.
Who Roavi is really for in Morocco
Licensed guides, first. This is the bigger opportunity and the one nobody writes about. Morocco has thousands of licensed guides, and most get their work through an agency, a hotel concierge, a riad owner or a tour operator — all of whom take a cut of what the traveller paid. A guide can end up with half of a fee the traveller believed went to them, and often does not know the number.
If you hold the carte professionnelle, a profile travellers find and message directly is a way to be paid the whole amount by the person you are actually working for. Roavi takes no commission and never touches the payment. That is not skirting the licence — it is the licence finally being worth what it should be.
Put it in the first line of your profile. Travellers look for it, and in a country with Morocco's reputation for faux guides, being visibly licensed is the thing that makes a cautious traveller message you rather than keep scrolling.
Everyone else, for the things that are not guiding. The list above is a real business in a country taking twenty million visitors a year. Hosting, food, craft, company. Be honest with yourself about which side of the line an arrangement sits on, and you will be fine.
If you do want the licence
The route runs through the Ministry of Tourism: training at an approved institute, an examination covering Moroccan history, heritage and languages, then the carte professionnelle. Guides are licensed by category and region, so a Marrakech medina guide and a national guide leading a Sahara circuit are not the same qualification.
Two honest warnings. The specifics — categories, fees, which institutes, how often examinations run — change, and change regionally, so confirm the current process with the Ministry or your regional tourism delegation before you spend anything. And there is a persistent small industry selling shortcuts to a carte professionnelle. There is no shortcut. If someone offers you one, they are taking your money.
It is a real qualification, which is exactly why it has value.
Why any of this is worth the trouble in 2026
Morocco took 19.8 million visitors in 2025 — a record, up 14 percent on the year before, and enough to make it the most visited country in Africa, ahead of Egypt. The first quarter of 2026 was up another 7 percent. The national target is 26 million by 2030, the year Morocco co-hosts the World Cup with Spain and Portugal.
Whichever side of the line you are on, the demand is not speculative. It is already here, and the curve is pointed at a World Cup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need a licence to be a tour guide in Morocco?
To guide — yes. Taking paying visitors through monuments, sites or a sold itinerary is a regulated profession under Law 05-12, unlicensed guiding has been banned since 2007, and licensed guides hold a carte professionnelle checked at monument entrances. This is genuinely unlike most countries, so do not carry assumptions across from Thailand or Mexico.Can I spend time with a traveller in Morocco without a licence?
Yes. Coffee, a meal, walking your own neighbourhood, cooking together, a craft session, language exchange, helping someone shop as a friend — none of that is guiding and none of it needs a permit. What the law governs is being paid to interpret places for visitors. The two are different jobs, and most of what happens on Roavi is the second kind of day, not the first.What is a faux guide in Morocco?
The local term for someone who approaches tourists near the medina and sells an informal tour, usually taking commission from the shops they steer people into. The tourist brigade polices it actively in Marrakech and Fes and people are arrested. It is worth knowing about for a practical reason: those medina approaches are where enforcement happens, so do not lead paying visitors around there without a licence.I am already a licensed guide. Why would I use Roavi?
Because of what the agencies take. Most guiding work in Morocco arrives through an agency, riad, concierge or tour operator, each taking a cut of what the traveller paid — a third is ordinary, a half happens, and guides often do not know the figure. A profile travellers find and message directly means the whole fee reaches you, with no commission to Roavi. Put your carte professionnelle in the first line of your profile; travellers look for it.How do you get a tourist guide licence in Morocco?
Through the Ministry of Tourism: a training course at an approved institute, an examination covering history, heritage and languages, then the carte professionnelle. Requirements, categories and fees change regionally, so confirm the current process with the Ministry or your regional tourism delegation before paying for any course — there is a small industry selling shortcuts that do not exist.