APPEAL OF TOURIST TO MARRAKECH

The Appeal of Tourist to Marrakech

The Appeal of Tourist to Marrakech

Introduction

Marrakech, one of the most popular destinations of Morocco has long been a political and commercial centre of the country after its founding in the eleventh century by the Almoravid dynasty. Marrakech is still one of the major Moroccan cities like Fez, Rabat and Casablanca. Recently it has become a popular tourist destination. The city has developed as one of major urban-tourist centre of the world (Selby & Morgan 1996, p. 287). Urban Tourism is the term used to describe activity related to tourism occurs in metropolitan areas that entail connections between urban environments & visitors, distinguished through people's intense concentration (Selby & Morgan 1996: 287).

In this paper, the appeal for tourist in Marrakech will get discussed, and how urban tourism developer could motivate tourists to visit Marrakech and other historical sites in North Africa.What Motivates Tourists or Visitors?

Range of purposes motivates tourists or visitors towards the metropolitan areas all over the world, which includes normal purpose such as business meetings, conferences, seminars, VFR, training, leisure & special purpose like culture, sports & education (Failte 2006, p. 102). Many metropolitan cities, which are also, the centre of urban tourism, have moved towards the closer alignment, between strategies of major events & their tourism industry, as the tourism industry also generates a lot of profit.

There are number of reasons that motivate tourists to choose different destinations all over the world. Gray (1970) while defining the motivating factors for tourists stress that tourists are motivated towards a particular location because of their wanderlust and curiosity or to experience the unfamiliar or to explore different places, cultures status & prestige. In addition Gray (1970) mentioned that for majority of people sun lust; sunshine/climate, better amenities for recreation than at home are also the key motivators that persuade tourists to choose a location (Ritchie, Carr and Cooper 2003, pp. 30-36). With regards to Gray's theory of motivation if one would compare Marrakech than it is readily understandable that Marrakech has factors mentioned in the theory, which can persuade tourists.

In 1954 Abraham Maslow proposed a motivation theory which is applied in all disciplines of life, whether its business, social sciences or any psychology. In his theory he proposed that people are motivated with variety of factors while taking decisions, physiological needs are the first and most important needs of human, followed by safety, social, esteem and self actualization needs. In connection to tourists' motivation, it can be said that the need for self actualization is the key motivator, because tourist can be motivated only when they actually create the passion. Self actualization deal with how people think about them, and when people realize their needs for self actualization they often choose to visit sites that cater their needs of self actualization. In relation to Marrakech, there are several sites that could cater the needs of people with diverse interests (Hagerty 1999, pp. 249-271). Using their diversification of tourists' attraction, Marrakech has ...