Fears tourism will ruin Marrakesh culture and charm

[Meriem_DZ 37]

I read this article at cnn.com. I thought some would be inerested in reading.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/28...reut/index.html

Meriem

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

good article

[mybackpages 0]

Thanks Meriem, Always an interesting debate. The nature of a culture is not static, yet people always respond with concern abotu how these changes will impact the future. For me marrakesh is a wonderful, open and diverse city- even hosted the Arab Gay Conference once, but I still stay away from it in high tourist season!

[rclouse 0]

"Tourism brings only illnesses and social deviance," said one young man in a recent survey of local attitudes.

"You're wrong," interrupted his mother. "It is thanks to these people that we have bread to eat."

mom!

[MrsAmera 41]

I think the article touched on one point that makes a big difference, even if tourism is helping Marrakeshi's. My husband's mother just sold their house in the Marrakech kasbah after recieving several offers from Europeans to buy it. But they all low balled the price BIG TIME! Europeans and Americans go there and expect to buy everything from the Moroccans dirt cheap and then renovate and make a nice profit which hell is capitalism but is not fair to the everyday Moroccans. Now she went to buy a new house closer to her daughters and even though the kasbah house sold for around 69,000$ (after all the taxes, paperwork to change ownership etc.) she can't find anything to buy in that range. (We're talking of a house here, not an apartment - I'm sure she could live in a 2 bdr apartment for cheaper but 1 daughter and her 2 kids live with her, and she wants space for when the 4 kids and thier families who live in the US and Italy come to visit). The price of living in Marrakech is going up extremely fast but the wages are severely lagging behind.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

Hopeing the people get some of the money benefits, i really like what i got to see of this city and would like to return. Not seeing it before i have nothing to compare from the past, so many good things get to commercialized but money tends to speak loudly.