The Community Based Tourism Project in the Village of Timidarte

Description of the Village and the Project

Timidarte is a Berber village. It is located in the South of Morocco, counting 2700 in-habitants. It is one of the villages that are found at the river Drâa and it is situated at the middle of the valley between Ouarzazate and Zagora, 15 km south of Agdz.
An inhabitant reports on Timidarte, his place of birth: "Agriculture constitutes the principle activity of the inhabitants. The soil is irrigated using the waters of the wadi drâa. But for several years the region has been experiencing adrought never known. This situation has forced numerous families to leave the village and to moveto the city. Besides, for several years, the village has been benefiting electricity and drinking water." (Mohamed El Malki). This quote illustrates some of the major problems of the village which correspond to the situation of the whole area: drought and emigration, which enforce an unfavourable economic situation. An addi-tional problem is caused by the emigration which leaves clay-built buildings (houses and kasbahs) unattended so that they are at risk of decay. These clay-built buildings need constant maintenance because the material does not resist to natural influ-ences like rain or wind. This maintenance is in Timidarte not any more given because many inhabitants have been leaving their houses and the house have not been looked after during the last years. This is especially a problem because these build-ings are part of the cultural heritage of the region.
Thus, the village community developed the idea to use their cultural heritage for tour-ism and vice versa to use tourism for the preservation of their cultural heritage and to generate additional income.
The process of the tourism development project started in 2002. The villagers elected a group of persons in charge of the planning process and its realisation. The kasbah (as first major scheme) was measured and its damages were analysed. This was done in cooperation with students of architecture from the University of Wies-baden/Germany. The financing of the project was assured by the American NGO Helen Keller International that took over the sponsorship for the project. However, the villagers themselves contribute to the project with their proper work, also tourists and interns from other countries are thought to support it, so that in the end the pro-ject is able to function autarkical. Then the renovation of the kasbah, which will serve as tourist accommodation, started. The renovation was connected to an educational program in traditional clay-building techniques. In September 2004 the renovation of the first Kasbah was finished, other kasbahs will be reno-vated.
Steps that are connected to the tourism development are:
• writing and reading courses for women (to empower them for the participation in the project),
• educational work for the children concerning the contact with foreigners (for example, that begging is not profitable),
• re-building of knotting- and weaving-mills
• organic vegetable farming,
• ecological renewal of the water-supply
Besides the cooperation with Helen Keller International, the project works together with two external partners: the German tour operator KaravanSerail and the French La Tour Des Sense. The first one has been involved in the project from the begin-ning: Its head, Muriel Brunswig, lived in Timidarte for two years and conducted field studies. Therefore she knows the village and its people well. Both tour operators of-fer project tours which provide Timidarte with tourists.
The tourism development project is embedded into a development program for Timi-darte which is mainly conducted by the local NGO Association Taskala pour le De-velopement du Douar Timidarte (ATDDT). It was founded in 1998 in Timidarte in or-der to resolve the social and economic problems of the village and thus create better conditions for life in Timidarte. The activities of the NGO comprise alphabetisation courses, the re-establishing of the school-building and school-class, a women project for breeding sheep, the set-up of an educational garden for organic vegetable farming, and the support of the tourism project. At the moment there are working groups on ecotourism, women and education. Association members contribute to the NGO’s work by active participation, identification with the project work, participation in the financing, electing and by participating in the general as-semblies. In 2003 the association had 240 members, 90 women and 150 men, which corresponds to almost 10% of the population

The Role of Tourism in the Project

As illustrated in the previous chapter, tourism in Timidarte takes place as rural tour-ism (tourism in rural areas) and is organised in a community-based way. The follow-ing examples (offers from the German tour operator KaravanSerail) show that tour-ism in Timidarte is performed as cultural and village-based tourism.
'KaravanSerail' offers two project orientated tours in cooperation with ATDDT. This cooperation gives most responsibility to the community, as the following note shows given to the customers by KaravanSerail: ”These tours are not the usual tours. KaravanSerail does not cooperate with professional agencies on site which have or-ganised every single detail. Instead, this organisational work is performed by the As-sociation Taskala. So, you are amidst the Moroccan rural society. And no matter how much the villagers are trying to arrange everythng as nice and pleasant as possiblefor you, there will be changes in program here and there, or not everything will be going like clockwork”. (own translation)
Both tours are trips for eight days. Day two to seven are spent in Timidarte. Tourists can choose between staying at private homes or at the kasbah. The first tour is titled 'Life in Clay'. The general idea is to work together with the local people as they reno-vate the kasbah in the traditional way of clay-building. Tourists will learn about the production of clay bricks and walls, arcades, roofs made of reed etc.. Since the tradi-tional architecture in southern Morocco is closely linked to the socio-cultural structure of the villages, tourists also get an insight into the village's social structures and its history by learning about traditional architecture. Besides the work at the kasbah, the tour also comprises several trips into the surrounding areas, for example into the neighbouring village Tissergat, which is already renovated. Meals are prepared by the local women and are taken together with the local community.
The second tour is titled 'Berber Cultural Week'. The general idea of this tour is to give tourists an insight into the Berber daily life and their culture. Each day is built on one topic. Day one attends to the 'cuisine berbère'. Tourists will learn about Berber ways of cooking, baking and their common spices and herbs. Day two focuses on the clay-building technique, day three offers 'Beauté berbère' and Berber crafts. Tourists will visit the joiner’s workshop and the weaving mills in Timidarte, and experience the hammam in the neighbouring village. Day four introduces the visitors to the meaning of markets and folklore. The market in the neighbouring village is visited (the 15 km are done by mule), where tourists buy the food for the evening and learn about hag-gling. In the evening tourists will participate in the traditional folklore by learning the basic drum rhythms and dancing steps.
So far, tourists seem to have come especially with the two above mentioned tour op-erators. If individual travellers come to the village, they are not allowed to stroll trough the village on their own, but they have to take a local guide. Thus, the com-munity tries to keep down negative impacts (disturbance of their daily life).
In a nutshell, tourism in Timidarte is conducted as cultural tourism and also the definition of village-based tourism fits: In both project orientated tours (traditional and present) culture, history and archaeology are major components and visitors share the daily life of the locals.

The Educated Guess: Lessons from Scientific Work on Community-based Tourism

So far, the paper put up the framework in which the rural village-based and cultural tourism of Timidarte takes place: At first, the overall situation of tourism in Morocco was looked at. This situation shows that, with efforts, Morocco can revitalise its tour-ism development, especially by focussing on circular and thus rural, cultural and na-ture-based tourism. Secondly, the paper looked at the regions Ouarzazate, Zagora and the valley Drâa surrounding the village Timidarte. The problems of this area were highlighted. They consist mainly of ecological and socio-economical problems. In a third step, information about the village Timidarte, its problems and the devel-opment program, including tourism development was given.
At this stage, the task of the paper is to combine this information with scientific work on CBT. While doing this, success factors and possible future outcomes of Timi-darte's tourism development shall be illustrated. Also, some recommendations for the tourism development will be given.