Staying safe on a business trip to Morocco: a practical guide

The first hour of a trip is when travellers are most distracted: luggage, phones, tiredness and an unfamiliar airport. Arrange your transfer before you fly, know who is meeting you and how to recognise them, and avoid displaying your name or company on a sign in the arrivals hall if your profile makes that unwise.

• Use a pre-arranged driver for business days rather than hailing vehicles between meetings.
• Keep the schedule shared with as few people as necessary.
• Vary routes and timings if you are in the same city for several days.
• In old medinas, plan for walking: cars often cannot reach riads.

Where a driver alone is not enough, secure transportation plans the vehicle, the driver and the route together.

Choose a hotel with controlled access, and keep your room number to yourself. For meetings, ask your host about the venue's entrances and parking in advance. Sensitive conversations are better held in private rooms than hotel lobbies or terraces.

• Police (in cities): 19
• Ambulance and fire service: 15
• Gendarmerie (outside cities): 177
• 112 also works from a mobile phone.

Save these in your phone before you travel, along with your hotel's number and your local contact.

Most travellers need nothing more than good habits. Protection becomes worth considering when a person is publicly known, travels with valuables or sensitive information, has a predictable public schedule, or is responsible for a group. In that case, start with a risk assessment, or go straight to executive protection for the trip itself.

If you are considering a bodyguard, read hiring a bodyguard in Morocco: what to expect, or simply send us your itinerary.