A Qualitative Analysis Of The Impacts Of Tourism On The Cultural Identity Of The Host: The Case Of Marrakech City

Tourism represents an important industry at all economic and social levels in several countries it has many advantages as well as disadvantages on the host communities.The intercultural exchanges that occur between the tourists and the residents can be a chance to learn and discover a new culture or can result on the emergence of cultural shock and rejection of the other.Morocco is a country known for its strategic location and its openness to the west for decades and this due to hystorical events such as the French protectorate.The city of Marrakech represents one of the most famous tourist destinations that attract million tourists every year thanks to its traditional cultural heritage,the red city is mainly known for its old ancestral part called the medina of Marrakech with the famous Jamaa Lafna square a UNESCO cultural heritage and its narrow streets where various crafts shops are aligned.Considering handicrafts as a form of cultural heritage that itself represents one of the major components of cultural identity,this research analyses the impacts of tourism on cultural identity in terms of streghtening and attenuation by focusing on the handicrafts field that is the most representative sector of the Marrakchi identity.Moreover the lack of studies assessing the impacts of tourism on the cultural identity in our area of research justifies the choice of conducting this research.In order to answer the following problematic: “How is cultural identity affected by tourism and the intercultural exchanges that it generates? Do they contribute to its streghtening or weakening? We chose to carry out a quantitavie research by conducting semi-structured interviews targeting three categories of major actors in tourism;crafts masters and sellers,tour guides and tourists.Actually,17 individuals were interviewed online and on-site.Our thinking through out the design of the research realisation was mainly based on the literature review showing the strong link between cultural heritage and cultural identity and how it is affected by tourism.The findings of the thematic analysis of the data implied that handicrafts represent the most characteristic of the cultural identity of Marrakech,its maintenance and preservation is the residents’ main concern.Thus the locals and tourists have both a positive perception of each other.Finally,it appeared that the Marrakchi culturalidentity is strong and unchangeable but the locals are still not aware of the impacts of tourism that might modify it in the long term.