Tan-Tan

The town of Tan-Tan belongs to the province of the same name in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region.¹ In the 2024 census the municipality had 76,134 inhabitants in 18,797 households and the province 94,519; the province also includes the municipality of El Ouatia with 14,258 inhabitants.² Between 2014 and 2024 the province grew by an average of 0.9 per cent a year.³

In everyday life 91 per cent of the province's inhabitants speak Darija and 26.5 per cent Hassaniya.⁴ Of literate people aged ten and over in the province, 53.4 per cent read and write French.⁵

The Moussem of Tan-Tan is an annual gathering of more than thirty tribes from southern Morocco and other parts of north-west Africa. Such gatherings used to follow the nomads' yearly cycle of grazing and farming, usually around May; the first Moussem of Tan-Tan was held in 1963. It brings together trade, camel and horse breeding competitions, weddings, music, singing, games, poetry contests and oral traditions in Hassaniya.⁶

The Moussem was proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 and inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.⁷ It is organised by the Fondation Almouggar under the patronage of King Mohammed VI. The 18th edition, from 16 to 18 May 2025, featured Tbourida, camel races, craft exhibitions and folk games, along with two seminars, one of them on women's poetry in Hassaniya.⁸

The 19th edition is scheduled for 30 October to 3 November 2026, under the theme “Le Moussem de Tan-Tan, patrimoine humain et pont d'échange culturel”. Camel races, Tbourida, parades of camel riders, stages in Tan-Tan and El Ouatia and a closing poetry evening are planned; the partner country is the United Arab Emirates.⁹

The port of Tan-Tan lies on National Road 1 between Agadir and Laayoune, 25 kilometres south of the town and 330 kilometres south of Agadir; breakwaters more than 3,000 metres long shelter it.¹⁰ It was built in three phases: from 1977 to 1980 for 350 million dirhams, for coastal and deep-sea fishing, coastal shipping and ship repair; from 1987 to 1988 an extension for 150 million dirhams with a 150-metre quay at a depth of eight metres; and from 1996 to 1999 a third phase for 200 million dirhams with a further 422 metres of quay.¹¹

According to the port authority, 54 freezer trawlers sail from Tan-Tan for deep-sea fishing, along with around 400 coastal fishing units and around 250 small-scale fishing boats.¹² The port has two shipyards with boat lifts for 1,000 and 320 tonnes, six fish canning and freezing plants, four ice factories and four fishmeal and fish oil plants.¹³

In commercial traffic the port mainly imports fuel for the fishing fleet and heavy fuel oil for the power station of the national electricity utility.¹⁴ In 2022 it handled 132,504 tonnes of goods.¹⁵

The Office National de l'Électricité et de l'Eau Potable (ONEE) produces drinking water in Tan-Tan by desalinating brackish water; the plants date from 2003 and 2014. An ONEE presentation from 2021 gives their capacity as 10,380 cubic metres a day in one place and 12,100 in another.¹⁶