Meryanne Loum-Martin

Director & Owner of Jnane Tamsna

A little bit about Meryanne…

Meryanne Loum-Martin owns Jnane Tamsna, a luxury boutique hotel in Marrakech with her husband, Dr. Gary Martin, an ethnobotanist and founder of the Global Diversity Foundation. A Parisian lawyer turned boutique hotelier, she is the only black female hotel owner in Morocco. She designed Jnane Tamsna’s architecture and interior decor, drawing inspiration from Moroccan artistry, her West African roots, and her travels across the East. Born in Cote D’Ivoire to a Senegalese father and West Indian mother, both lawyers, Meryanne spent her childhood in Abidjan, Accra, London and Moscow before settling in Paris to pursue studies and a career in Law. She won the prestigious Prix des Secrétaires de la Conférence and represented Paris Bar in International Francophone Debate competitions. She first travelled to Morocco in 1985, and instantly fell in love with Marrakech, its colors and atmosphere rekindling her original passion for architecture and design. In 1989 she launched her first hospitality venture in the Marrakech Palmeraie: Dar Tamsna, which won the 2002 Harpers and Queen award for the Best Private Villa in the world. It was featured in 57 magazines, including Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, French Vogue, Italian Vogue, British Vogue, German Vogue, Condé Nast Traveller,Elle Décor and Coté Sud. In 1999 Meryanne opened an innovative cultural concept store, Ryad Tamsna, in the Marrakech Medina. In 2001, it made the front cover of Amex’s Departures magazine with the caption: The Essence of Chic. She was cited as the “pioneer of Marrakech boutique hospitality” by CNN. In 2001 she and her husband Gary created Jnane Tamsna. Birdsong fills the 9 acres of verdant garden, sprawling with date palms and olive trees. Gary planted almost 500 different species of plants on the ground, and all the vegetables served in Jnane Tamsna’s fresh cuisine are grown on their organic farm.