OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

4. THE CULTURAL FABRIC OF CITIES
- protection of the sand dunes, establishment of a greenbelt and a city park;
- and developing tourism facilities along the seafront and the Bay of Essaouira.
Restoration work on the ramparts began in 1999, with a pilot project supported
by UNESCO in the Mellah quarter. This work provided young men with training in
traditional masonry; a training workshop was set up and journeyman masons from France,
specialised in traditional masonry and stone cutting, trained several dozen apprentices
who then carried out the restoration work on the monumental doorways and arcades
of the souks in the middle of the Medina. The Agenda 21 team also persuaded the
local authorities to abandon a number of real estate projects that would have been
harmful to the city’s heritage and its image. These efforts, conducted jointly by the
local authorities, the national ministries, associations and support groups, and
international cooperation, were so successful that the Medina of Essaouira was placed
on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
In terms of tourism, an association of Essaouira residents looked for ways to take
advantage of the city’s assets: its ramparts, musical culture, and a woodworking craft
industry based on nearby cedar groves. A popular music festival was launched and
proved a great attraction not only for tourists from Morocco but also from abroad. Foreign
artists were also drawn to the festival, further enhancing the city’s artistic potential,
for example through the arrival of art galleries. One tangible outcome of the event was
the creation of an autumn university session that attracts intellectuals interested in
the city. A second festival was then established, the Alyzées festival of classical music.
A virtuous circle had begun: the inflow of tourists supported the establishment or
maintenance of hotels, restaurants and guesthouses. At the same time people undertook
to renovate their dwellings, the woodworking crafts flourished, and the airport was
upgraded. The city now has an international reputation, and filmmakers have returned
to the place where Orson Welles made Othello more than half a century ago. The number
of tourists rose from 60,000 in 1995 to 200,000 in 2001, visitors extended their average
stay from 2 to 4 nights, the hotel occupancy rates multiplied by a factor of 3 or even 4,
and in 2001 there were some 700 jobs catering to tourism. Considering the cost of
investments and public subsidies that went into the festivals, and the revenues from
visitors, the cost-benefit ratio was calculated at 0.7 in 1998 and 0.4 in 2001.
The city now finds itself at a crossroads, and it will have to find ways to keep some
control over tourism (one possibility for “smoothing out” the impact of tourism would
be to promote surfing possibilities along the very windy coast) and over foreign
investment (largely European). It will have to protect its ecosystem and undertake
reforestation to compensate for the city’s expansion. It will also need to introduce a
labelling policy to protect its craftsmen, in light of illicit trafficking in wood.
The contribution of culture to the urban fabric needs to be integrated more
thoroughly into the city’s strategies, for only in this way can one measure the extent
132 CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005