Morocco, QR Codes, Wifi and iPhone apps - jumping ahead of the rest of us ?
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 12:58 I am just back from a short break of 10 days which we spent in Morocco, one of our favorite destinations.
This time we went back to Fes, the marvelous city with small streets to get lost in and a truly medieval Medina.
Later in the week we also visited Chaouen in the North - a small village with gorgeous blue streets in the Rif mountain range.
As always we felt at home in this beautiful country with its warm and friendly people... But this time I noticed - even more than previous times - the rapid changes happening in the cities.
WiFi:
Almost every restaurant, hotel or B&B has free WiFi. It was amazing to see that I could connect several times a day and for free.
If you compare this to most hotels in Europe where they ask you to pay serious money for a connection it is clear that Moroccan restaurateurs understand that a free connection should be part of the overall service these days.
Tips for when you visit Fes and need to stay connected but at the same time enjoy good food and a nice surrounding; Café Clock in the Medina, Riad Laaroussa or the very nice Fes et Gestes.
And then, one evening when we tried out a new restaurant called La Mezzanine I was really impressed by some of their marketing techniques...
QR Codes:
At this restaurant I found a business card, a booklet and a postcard.... al with QR codes.
The booklet was a compilation of some of the best restaurants in Morocco.
Each restaurant had a page with details, background, a picture of the owner and the chef + a QR code redirecting to the website.
The busines cards and the postcards had the same informaton again with QR codes.
I think it is amazing to see how modern marketing techniques are being used here in Morocco by some smart restaurant promoters.
The overcoupling organisation is called Best Restaurants Maroc and are based in Marrakech.
iPhone App:
And of course, if you're investing is promotional material wirth QR codes the next step is an iPhone application. And they have one...
150 restaurants in Morocco are in the listing and the application has geo-localisation, refined search etc...
The app really looks good and does the job it is supposed to do - point you to a good meal in beautiful surroundings.
The use of these mobile technologies show that countries like Morocco where the mobile phone penetration reaches 101,49% - more phones than Moroccans - are definitely jumping ahead.
I do believe that countries with no or less legacy systems (cable, monopolistic operators) and with a very young population will drive mobile and wireless innovation.
I also believe that most countries in Western Europe - and especially Belgium - will not be able to compete in the long term with very expensive data and wireless connections and no inclination to change this.
What do you think ?
