Proceedings of The 14th International Conference on Management, Economics and Humanities
Year: 2023
DOI:
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The impact of a festival on improving the city image through city marketing: Case of Fez Festival of World Sacred Music – Morocco
Ikrame SELKANI
ABSTRACT:
City marketing is a new concept, but its use has long been effective under a different terminology. Today, local decision-makers have become aware of its effectiveness on a global scale. The aim is to enhance the attractiveness of the territory.
Festivals are potential tourist opportunities, as are museums, galleries, concerts and other cultural products to the aim of building heritage. The importance attributed to festivals and festivals is favored by a context of decentralization and by the policy of promoting “a new alliance between economy and culture” (Lefebvre, 2002).
The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music is part of the strategy for the development of the city of Fez Morocco by relying on the heritage and the spiritual dimension of its medina. Its radiation is explained as much by its own characteristics as by the environment in which it takes place.
A questionnaire has been used to collect empirical data for this research. It has been used with 500 people and consists of a series of questions that try to assess the image of the city and the attractiveness of the festival according to the Likert scale from 1 to 7.
The aim of this study was to analyze more closely the city image and the influence that the festival can play on the variable of the image of the city responding to the essential hypotheses of all this work which are summarized in two:
Hypothesis 1: the attractiveness of the festival influences the image of the city.
Hypothesis 2: the attractiveness of the festival does not influence the image of the city.
Secondly, a qualitative research was carried out in order to analyze the impact of this festival, on the city image and its repercussions on society: economically, socially, and culturally.
To sum up, festivals have become important events in many cities in Europe and the rest of the world. The reasons for this proliferation may lie in a number of interrelated factors, such as new approaches to urban management, the use of cultural policies aimed at positively restructuring wealth creation, structural changes in economic production and the progressive naturalization or symbolization of the traditional economic sector (Quinn, 2005; Scott, 2000).
Presently, culture and tourism are two variables that have a very strong positive correlation and develop different and diversified objectives. In this case through the Fes Festival.
Essentially, the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music as a cultural product: contributes directly to economic development, neighborhood improvement, and the creation of new social relations; and gives a very positive image of the city, since it conveys a success and a favorable image at different levels (inside and outside this territory) that will have a great impact in the future.
keywords: City marketing, Culture, City, City image, Territories, cultural tourism, Fez Festival