MeDO’s Funds
In order to achieve its objectives, MeDO collaborates with persons and
legal entities located both inside and outside the Mediterranean region.
The MeDO’s working capital is derived from fund raising, donations,
endowments, governmental assistances and subsidies, and its own activities,
memberships and assets in Lebanon and abroad.
MeDO’s Formation
The Mediterranean Design Association is governed by a 5-member Board
of Directors.
An executive Board and an Administrative Board.
SERVICES
-The creation of a Data base of all activities and people involved in
Design, Arts and Crafts in the Mediterranean region.
-The creation of a sustainable Arts and Crafts Village on the Lebanese
coastline
called: ”Bukra , The Village of Hope”.
ACTIVITIES
Main Streams:
1- Marketing
2- Academia
3- Projects
4- Data base
Aspirations:
- Creation of a Design-led arts and crafts production center.
- Promote Arts and Crafts exhibitions.
- Creation of an Arts and Crafts school of Apprenticeship
- Arts and Crafts incubators and entrepreneurship.
RESEARCH CENTRE
Research topics:
- Phoenician Arts and Crafts: Investigation of the path and
the network established by the Phoenicians in the Mediterranean Sea.
Search the Partnership intends to rediscover what lead the Phoenician
to travel in the Mediterranean and research the aspect of their endeavor.
Emphasis on the Phoenician alphabet, and arts and crafts.
- Revival of the Lebanese tradition and cultural heritage.
- Lebanon: a society’s sustainable life style.
- Arts and Crafts in Lebanon.
- Design society in Lebanon.
- Design Entrepreneurship: A new profession?
- Research and methodology in Design.
- Research and Methodology for designers in the Mediterranean.
LINKS
- http://www.mind-and-matter.eu
- http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/index-14.html
- http://www.dezignare.com
- http://www.icograda.org
- http://www.iida.org
- http://www.emyan.org
- http://www.euromedalex.org
PARTNERSHIP
The Partnership consists strengthening cooperation amongst the following
Countries through art and design activities:
Lebanon, Syria, Crete, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Morocco,
Portugal, France and Spain.
PROJECTS
MeDO Crafts Project aims at reinforcing the capacity
of the Lebanese crafts through the Apprenticeship program in order to
access new markets. It also aims at encouraging the development of Mediterranean
crafts business partnerships between Europe, Middle East and North African
countries. The project also aims at developing ties between crafts communities
and trade professionals in the Mediterranean sea region (retailers,
exporters, designers-entrepreneurs, wholesalers) through the use of
advanced information technologies.
The MeDO Crafts Project will support the creation of
a Euro-Med sustainable and quality IT-assisted network focused on authentic,
quality and environmentally friendly handicrafts in the participating
Mediterranean neibourghing countries.
The objectives of the MeDO Crafts Project are:
- enhancing the skills and ability of craftsmen to better organize
their production, be prepared for international exhibitions and discover
new business strategies to export.
- organizing thematic events for selective local and regional crafts
and trade professionals.
-setting up an internet web site assisted by data base information offering
a set of tailored communication facilities, services and functionalities,
especially designed for professionals in the crafts sector thus to allow
them to retrieve information, networking support, enabling the inter-exchange
of experiences and engaging in prospective business activities.
- monitoring the ability to enhance crafts activities in the Mediterranean
sea region by establishing sustainable networks and partnership amongst
themselves.
The MeDO Crafts Project will be supported by a network
of organizations and business associations involved in the support and
promotion of the crafts sector in Lebanon, North Africa and Europe.
The duration of this MeDO Craft project is 24 months. It is entitled:
“Alliance of cultural tourism in the Mediterranean Sea”.
(ACTM). The concept revolves around the awareness on the importance
of cultural tourism with focus on the Arts and Crafts activities.
The main actions planned are the following:
- Preparation and organization of project at large.
-Setting-up a web networking operation with EU partners and South Mediterranean
countries.
- Creation of a Communication Platform especially designed for the Mediterranean
crafts and professionals in the crafts sector to allow them to retrieve
information, support networking, exchange of experience and engage in
business-related value added.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
The Apprenticeship Program in the Arts and Crafts:
MeDO encourages:
-The willingness to learn at least one discipline.
-The willingness to learn the English language, computer literacy, entrepreneurship
and nature science.
-Learn English: The English language helps students to use the proper
words and terms in their appropriate contexts. The English vocabulary
will help student to understand technology and adapt immediately to
the computer literacy. The English language will also provide an easier
means for the future artisan to communicate during exhibitions with
tourists, and correspond with trades and exports merchants form abroad.
-Learn computer: Computer, software and internet will help the apprentice
to use technology as an integral part of his entrepreneurship using
new production methods.
-Learn entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship will help the apprentice to
organize his manufacturing process and production agenda, balance his
account, and keep records of his work orders and stocks. It will enhance
creativity and will increase the time efficiency production management.
-Learn Nature science: The apprentice will learn and explore the fundamentals
of sustainability and how to respect the earth resources without destroying
nature and annihilating its creatures. Also learn to use earth sacred
resources for the sake of the wellbeing of human kind. Ecology and Recycling
process will be integrated and tackled in this course.
Other educational programs
MeDO encourages different age groups educational programs to fit their
needs.
For example: Children Saturday art school, Summer youth arts and crafts
camp, Families arts and crafts formation, and art therapy for the elderly.
PUBLICATIONS
21 OctoberARABAD 2011 
The
Medinas 2030 conference,
Marseille, France
(See
the Photo)
Invitations to two conferences:
Robert Haddad, President, Mediterranean Design Organization.
1-Medinas 2030: « Les Villes de la Méditerranée
: Culture, Héritage et Modernité» October
8, 9 and 10, 2009.
Conference in Marseille, Salon Eugénie, Palais du Pharo, France.
Participated and published a presentation on the rehabilitation programs
of the city of Jounieh. Power point presentation and intervention published
on the Medinas' 2030 webpage: http://www.eib.org/projects/events/seminar-on-mediterranean-cities.htm
Sponsored by the BEI, Banque Europeene d’Investissement.
2-Colloque Medinnov V Conference, Marseille,
Jardin du Pharo, MPM Bldg, Marseille, France (Marseille Provence Métropole)
Reseau Euro-Méditerranéen de L’Innovation.
Director : Mr. Christian Rey
Attended the conference between October 7 and 9th 2009 as part of La
Semaine Economique de la Méditerranée, Marseille.
www.semaine-eco-med.com
Sponsored by the BEI, Banque Européene d’Investissement.
“ Apprenticeship
in the Arts and Crafts.”
By Prof.
Robert Haddad, Conference Catalog, Doha 2005, Qatar.
Today’s Revival of the Arts and Crafts
in the midst of the High-tech era can easily be considered as
a reliable means to fight unemployment during times of recession
and sometimes can be considered another means to abolish ignorance
in underdeveloped countries. At time of economic crisis, self-employment
may be the best remedy for unemployment. It is rather the best
solution for trades’ people who rely very much on their
own talent and ingenuity to survive the rough periods avoiding
by far the large-firm overheads. So among the solutions to fight
unemployment and migration stand apprenticeship and the creation
of the small business sector.
Apprenticeship is an old means of educating novice craftsmen that
consists of teaching them specific trades and crafts by practical
experience under skilled workers and by delivering a skillfully
iconoclastic workload for a prescribed period of time.
During recent centuries, apprenticeship has grown tremendously,
spreading into several valuable crafts and establishing a long
line of reputable craftsmanship around the world. Craftsmen and
trades people have always been considered as indispensable contributors
to the development of markets in several countries. The craftsmen
can easily be self-employed or work in small industrial formations.
Small businesses and industrial formations of craftsmen are necessities
in the design and construction fields. At present and more than
ever before, trades have become an integral part of the design-built
environment especially in the light of the ever-growing custom-design
market requests.
During the evolution of their career, craftsmen have somehow learned
the know-how to market their products at a continuous and progressive
pace. A living example of such an apprenticeship movement took
place in Germany between the first and second World War at Weimar
and Dessau. This movement was called the Bauhaus, where artists,
craftsmen and architects got together in an effort to perform
and reform a new means of educational apprenticeship compatible
with the socio-economical crisis and the needs of people of the
modern world.
At that time few students could afford to join higher educational
institutions, and the raging war forced people to be drafted and
annihilated farms, workshops, businesses, factories, etc., to
the exception of all factories engaged in the war effort, so the
Bauhaus resumed teaching trades and crafts by forming a creative
team of artists and craftsmen, thus enabling them to manufacture
several functional production lines. Some craftsmen succeeded
and were even placed in the spotlight of the most important generation
of designers and creators of the 20th century.
Nowadays, trades and craftsmanship have acquired
an added value and moreover are considered a necessity in higher
education, especially in the Arts and Science professions.
In Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, today’s craftsmen
and trades people have an enormous potential with a line of creative
products that could easily contribute to tourist attractions,
market sales, and even market trades and exports. For example,
there is the hand-made Lebanese cutlery from Jezzine, the hand-woven
textile and loom production of Zouk Mikayel in Kesrouan, where
artisans are working in conjunction with others from Aubusson,France,
and the hand-made copper, brass and silverware from Tripoli, etc.
The Lebanese craftsmen have managed to keep abreast with the ever-changing
market requests locally and regionally. Typical folk and local
contemporary products designed and handcrafted in Lebanon are
so valued as to out-market mass-produced expensive foreign artifacts.
Any Arts and Crafts apprenticeship that aims at refining and asserting
students’ skills in different fields can be regarded as
the backbone of innovative and inspirational programs and as worthwhile
encouraging. This kind of programs can basically enhance creativity,
especially in countries seeking constant progress and quality
production. But it is preferable for these programs to aim at
emphasizing the quality of work while preserving a proactive cultural
agenda. This is because innovation requires a teaching methodology
that emanates from learning by doing tasks and by hands-on performance
supplemented with an inspirational added value, with concentration
on knowledge and expertise offered only by qualified instructors
and renowned, specialized craftsmen.
Robert Haddad
(Robert Haddad is the founder
and President of MeDO
"The Mediterranean Design Organization"”, Beirut, Lebanon.
The Mediterranean Design Organization is a non-profit organization
established in 2009 in the city of Beirut, Lebanon. Its mission
aims at contributing to the integrated development of the Mediterranean
sea region through a design-led arts and crafts methodology. MeDO
concentrates on innovative activities compatible with the environment
and the preservation of the cultural heritage of this region.
MeDO encourages research and entrepreneurship while focusing on
a multidisciplinary approach through design, arts and crafts.
MeDO’ Offices are located in the San Georges’ Monastery in Sahel
Alma, Jounieh, Lebanon.)
|
Alliance of cultural Tourism and the Arts & Crafts
By Robert Jadin
ABSTRACT
Reaching an increasingly diverse and sophisticated tourist population
with an
effective cultural message, realistically delivered, for those Queensland
regions
not advantaged by unique natural structures poses a real challenge.
Although
today cultural references are blurred due to rampant standardisation,
globalisation and mass production, there is a growing desire by the
tourist public
to return to our origins, traditional know how and singularity which
are values
precisely concentrated in the arts and crafts professions. It is essential
for those
regions to define and rekindle a cultural uniqueness through their traditional
skills
thereby creating substantive opportunities for a sustainable future.
This session draws parallels between regional France (2003 Senate Report
“Tourism and the Arts and Crafts Professions”, a discussion
paper) and regional
Queensland underlining the rich possibilities existing between cultural
tourism
and the arts. It also examines those factors likely to accelerate or
impede the
development of this concept by focussing on the successful contemporary
examples of such relationships in regional France which argues that:
1. This recognition influences cultural heritage priorities in different
rural
communities.
2. The emphasis must be on human activities which encourage, maintain
or revive artisanal and technical skills from the local regions.
3. A recognition that cultural tourism allied with the art and craft
professions, by emphasising the uniqueness of the cultural object
through quality, authenticity and integrity, can offer regional/rural
communities not just mere survival but a good quality of life as a
cultural and economically sustainable alternative.
Alliance of cultural Tourism and the Arts & Crafts
While France is positioned as one of the premier tourist destinations
in the world
with approximately 77 million foreign visitors annually and with tourism
contributing 15 billion Euros to the French economy annually, it has
“not
managed to maximise economically its leading tourism position”
(French Senate
Report, No. 250, 2003). Tourist numbers increased by 1.2% in 2002 over
2001
but tourist spending decreased by 2.4%. Spain, however, achieved a growth
in
tourism of 2.7%, and saw a 6% increase in tourist spending in this period.
In addition to this worrying trend, tourism was identified as not only
a substantial
but an essential component to the regional and rural economy in France.
However, tourism outcomes differ between regions with those not blessed
with
remarkable natural or geographic features, significantly disadvantaged.
Moreover, many areas of regional France are suffering the loss of traditional
agricultural jobs thus requiring special assistance and economic infusions
to
prevent a social and demographic fracturing and “desertification”
of their region.
In 2002 and 2003 colloquiums addressing the state of the French tourism
industry were held with the outcomes presented in a report to the French
Senate.
This provoked agreement at the national and regional level to co-operatively
fund, research and develop initiatives to address the problems identified.
A key strategy identified that this paper explores, was the proposal
to include, in
a more formal and official sense, the arts and crafts within tourism
leading
ultimately to the unification of the economic, tourism, and arts and
crafts
spheres. The belief was also endorsed that the fuller development of
tourism
could reverse the drain from rural areas.
This strategy had as its basis, three key factors. Firstly arts and
crafts guilds, cooperatives
and artisans exist all over France and importantly in regions where
tourism is not a traditional activity. These constitute a valuable network
which
could be voluntarily redeployed in a balanced strategy of demographic
and
tourism management.
Secondly the arts and crafts professions are the inheritors of centuries
of
traditional skills and complex knowledge acquired after long periods
of
apprenticeship. Although today cultural references are blurred due to
the
rampant standardisation and mass production of globalisation, there’s
a growing
desire by many for the nostalgia of origin, to comprehend their environment
both
natural and social, and to reinstate singularity and authenticity,values
precisely
concentrated in the arts and crafts.
Thirdly, the arts and crafts represent, economically, strong value added
activities.
Developing and integrating them within a network of tourism offerings
can benefit
economically the whole collective, creating a new dynamism and providing
sustainability for both sectors. This is especially so given they are
playing an
increasingly significant economic role with the sector exhibiting a
36% increase in
employment over the last 20 years well beyond the national employment
average. This also highlights the vitality of these professions and
the fact that
they are being embarked upon by an increasingly younger workforce.
Thus the Senate Report argues the spheres of tourism and the arts and
crafts are
natural partners capable of creating a synergy which fits well with
the new
demands of contemporary tourism and promising a mutually profitable
partnership for both.
To realise this vision, the Report proposed as an essential primary
task the better
definition of what constitutes the French touristic offering and how
this could be
positioned to produce a unique product.
Audits of local and regional potential to identify possible cultural
offerings and
demand were required as was support for existing and where necessary,
reestablishment
of arts and crafts activities which embraced the concept of
locality,originality and singularity.
The strategy was the creation of arts and crafts pools within existing
cultural and
heritage trails as well as the development of dedicated arts and crafts
trails at the
regional level linking sites and their related artisanal activities.
It was hoped this
would create a kind of label or branding for a region and generate mutually
profitable outcomes for both arts and craft practitioners, their associated
village/city and greater region. It was noted that such trails have
witnessed, over
the last 10 years, a continued growth in cities where artistic and artisanal
activities have been encouraged. Administrative and financial strategies
would
also be enacted to encourage the creation of artisan streets and even
small
villages, that is specific spaces totally dedicated to the arts and
crafts professions.
The ultimate objective is the development of trails amalgamating and
unifying all
the resources available in a region with special focus on the identification,
development and inclusion of unique arts and crafts offerings.
Previously discrete activities could be combined creatively encompassing:
Culture and cultural heritage trails
Wine and gastronomy
Festivals and special events
Arts & craft educational workshops
Such combinations need not compete against each other but rather can
produce
synergies, cross fertilising and sustaining each other. Such an example
would be
the gourmand trail organised by Languedoc and Provence jointly. This
combines
aesthetics and epicure (called ‘a table’) involving restaurants
and other food
establishments where all dinner sets tableware, crockery, glasses, linen
etc
(which may include the work of many artisans) are for sale. Diverse
small arts
and crafts workshops are also held. This trail takes place every year
for an active
period of 40 days, (1st October to 10th November) and has been a great
success
from the viewpoint of “wine and food” trail tourism and
the arts and crafts
professions.
In short the strategy is:
Looking at going beyond merely visiting heritage sites, churches
and
museums (although important) it seeks to celebrate every aspect of
creation, culture, food, wine, the landscape, activities, the language.
It
seeks to involve the tourist with locals and make every tourist a cultural
explorer and discoverer (Landry cited in Jelincic, 2002).
Marketing strategies promoting the resulting unique and authentic cultural
product and experience were to be developed and aimed at the modern
tourist
who seeks not merely pleasure but also a desire for knowledge and authenticity.
The overall strategy within an ambitious five year plan requiring full
state and
regional support, is to create a substantial number of small to medium
business
enterprises. It was launched in mid 2003 with Arts and Crafts Open Days
in 22
regions of France when for three days all arts and crafts workshops,
comprising
more than 13,000 artisans, opened their doors to the public to showcase
their
mix of knowledge, skills, techniques and artistic imagination.
This illustrates a key tenet of the strategy with its emphasis on showcasing
arts
and crafts practitioners engaged in demonstrating their skills and producing,
in
accessible venues, using traditional methods and materials, their unique,
authentic arts and crafts objects. As Etienne Dulin, owner of a highly
regarded
copper workshop in the village of Villedieu-les-Poeles situated on the
newly
designated “tin road” between Brittany and Normandy believes,
a tourist (or an
educated traveller as he prefers to name them) who sees a particular
object
being fabricated by hand with explanations of the process will look
at it with
understanding, respect and more to the point, as an object to be acquired.
He
views his role not only as an authentic artisan/manufacturer but also
as a
teacher1 (French Senate Report, No. 250, 2003).
1 He has also initiated a gastronomic food/table trail with chefs, cheese
makers, chocolate
artisans and vignerons working in partnership with ceramicists, glass
artisans, woodcarvers
and iron artisans.
M. Pierre Chevalier (President of the Société d’encouragement
des Métiers d’art)
reminded the 2003 French colloquium that the arts and crafts are positioned
precisely at the meeting point between the cultural and business spheres,
hence
the suitability of their assignation to the tourism sector.
The French Senate Report is not alone in recommending that the Arts
and Crafts
be aligned with tourism and utilised to ensure economic sustainability
for
disadvantaged regions. The UNESCO report: Encouraging Arts and Crafts
for
Sustainable Development (2003: IV.3.1) also recognises the importance
of
artisanal activities to tourism, economic growth and social cohesion.
It argues that it has a huge potential to empower deprived populations
and
indigenous communities, enabling them to invent and shape their future
by
drawing on arts and crafts professional networks to emphasise”
capacity building”
for local residents.
A practical example of UNESCO’s endorsement of the arts and crafts
as a tool of
economic sustainability is its Small Business Incubator program for
cultural
industries launched in the Asia Pacific region
(http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/index-14.html).
The objective of this initiative is to employ cultural activity as a
basic building
block for sustainable economic development by promoting the widespread
establishment of sustainable small-scale industries utilizing existing
but
underdeveloped traditional arts and crafts skills.
The program nurtures practitioners through the difficult start-up period
and offers
training, advice, credit, space and equipment to create necessary entrepreneurial
competencies.
The program also has as its objective the validation, preservation,
protection and
enhancement of indigenous cultural practices thus providing communities
with
the means to sustain the development gains achieved through the program..
UNESCO has also created a portal to promote quality art, craft and design
using
new technologies to stimulate creativity and global interactions.
THE AUSTRALIAN SITUATION:
In contrast to the French Senate Report and UNESCO’s initiatives,
a federal
inquiry into the Australian contemporary visual arts and craft sector
conducted in
2001 culminated in the production of the Myer Report. This report, while
recognising the need to develop sustainability for both individual artists
and for
the overall arts and crafts sector, suggests this be achieved through
increased
government funding.
Accordingly the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, a joint initiative
between the
federal and Queensland governments, was launched in response to the
Myer
Report. It provides increased funding of at least $39 million over four
years
designed “to support infrastructure and individual artists, expand
markets and
support indigenous arts and crafts” (Department of Communications
Information
Technology and the Arts 2003).
There is no suggestion in either the Myer Report or the Visual Arts
and Crafts
Strategy that the building of strategic alliances between tourism and
the arts and
crafts sectors could be a means of achieving economic sustainability.
It is the argument of this paper that the ideas put forward in the French
Senate
Report offer perhaps a more viable means of achieving both a sustainable
future
for rural and regional Australia and for the arts and craft sector.
Moreover, in an
environment supportive of increased funding, Australia should seize
the
opportunity to explore the development of such alliances which ultimately
could
provide the means for some arts and crafts professionals to move beyond
a
reliance on government funding.
There are already some Australian examples which parallel the French
initiatives.
Tasmania has developed numerous tourist trails including:
Tasmania Wine and Food: Cellar Door & Farm Gate Guide
Art & Design Trail
The Huon Trail
The Heritage Highway
Great Nature Trail
Wildlife trails
These all come with route maps marking the various attractions available,
however, there is only limited inclusion of the activities of arts and
crafts
professions and overall the development of arts and crafts trails and
offerings are
embryonic in comparison with the other trails on offer.
The Queensland government has adopted in its Creative Queensland initiative,
cultural tourism as a strategy “to enhance regional Queensland’s
development by
showcasing a region’s distinct and unique cultural heritage and
natural assets”
(Creative Queensland Progress Report, 2003:7). It has funded 68 Cultural
Tourism Incentive Program projects valued at $3 million to 2003. Nonetheless,
while recognising the vast size of Queensland and the challenges that
it presents
for the development of regional tourism trails, there remains a major
potential for
synergies between the tourism and arts and crafts sectors to be encouraged
and
developed.
Queensland has in existence a network of cultural service organisations,
arts and
cultural advisory committees (e.g. RADF), cultural venues as well as
Chambers of
Commerce and Economic Development Boards. These represent a basic
infrastructure which could be utilised to this end.
Unfortunately there is insufficient time in this paper to analyse the
various
cultural and tourism policies throughout Australia nor canvass all the
examples of
arts and crafts tourism offerings Australia wide. Such an audit will
be the subject
of my future research.
ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES:
The Tourism Forecasting Council predicts international visitor arrivals
to Australia
will grow at an average annual rate of 6.6% over the next 10 years reaching
9.4
million international visitors by 2010. Tourism, already a significant
economic
force in Australia, is very much a growth industry, and has a multiplier
effect in
the local economy.
Supporting the amalgamation of the tourism and the arts and craft spheres
is the
Cultural Tourism in Australia (1999) Report which notes:
There is a substantial market for Australian art and craft products
among
international visitors. Forty-one per cent of all international visitors
who
had some shopping expenditure bought art or craft items during their
trip,
adding substantially to the export side of Australia’s balance
of payments
(Buchanan,1997:18).
Internationally tourism now provides 10% of world employment, 12% of
GDP and
is predicted to provide up to 100 million new jobs by 2010. Embracing
the arts
and crafts sphere will validate rural artists and craft practitioners
as partners with
cultural and heritage tourism throughout Australia. Moreover, arts and
crafts
practitioners could be funded in regional and rural areas with a view
to
establishing ‘artist and artisan colonies’ (as exemplified
by the village of St. Paul
de Vence in Provence). Such policies would also provide opportunities
to increase
and preserve the quality, quantity and diversity of local cultures thus
creating
‘brand recognition’ artefacts.
The extension of the tourist season and the geographical base beyond
the beach
to rural and remote regions through the arts and crafts could create
sustainable
economies through year-round tourist options. It could provide insurance
against
tourism downturns due to terrorism, pilot strikes, etc., and support
existing
agricultural enterprises through farm stays and B & B’s. It
could also provide
employment opportunities for women, youth and post-retirees. This could
in turn
assist social cohesion and encourage more social interaction for local
people
enabling regional towns to formulate and take control of their future.
Arts and crafts Cultural Tourism needs to attract and foster entrepreneurial
partnerships and the development of niche and micro business markets.
Job
creation, diversity and retention would then contribute to the growth
of other
economic activities in rural areas (i.e. the multiplier effect) as well
as increasing
tax and export revenues.
Thus, Arts and Crafts Trails could be an appropriate tool to revitalise
declining
rural areas ensuring a sustainable future.
Other regions throughout the world have recognised these benefits with
the
Appalachian Regional Commission[2001], for example, arguing that
Tourism and craft present the best direction for the future. No
other
industries offer such flexibility for growth in all levels of employment,
from
entry level to professional to part-time, post retirement. Tourism and
craft rely on unique, indigenous resources and people to sustain local
economies. They are not subject to industrial moves across borders or
oceans.
To create a successful marriage of arts and crafts with tourism will
require
collective harmony between the region, the community and the visitor.
Fixed in
the reality of the environment, such trails must be a reflection of
the market
demand.
Success will require:
- Preliminary design and marketing research;
- Awareness of the correct treatment of distinctive cultural resources;
- Access to expert advice in heritage resource management, tourism
planning and development;
- The development of new skills;
- Genuine consultation with the local community to allow for the
participation of a range of interest groups; and
- The creation of Quality fulfilling jobs for local residents.
In order to avoid or at least minimise the unfavourable effects on
physical,economic,social and cultural resources and negative impacts
on the host
communities,unrealistic expectation and inappropriate development need
to be
guarded again.
In this regard, consideration should be given to the formation of a
body such as a
‘trails consortium’ for its development and promotion.
In Europe while tourism is increasingly seen as a possible partner for
trail
development and sustainable tourism, there still is a tendency, France’s
attempts
notwithstanding, to devise and develop distinct, discrete trails rather
than
drawing upon all the resources of a region.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, there are many parallels between the French and the Australian
situation. As with France our rural and regional areas have experienced
the loss
of traditional agricultural jobs and key infrastructure. They have experienced
social and demographic fracturing and many of these regions attract
minimal
tourists given their geographical situation far away from key tourist
routes and
destinations. Australia also faces the challenge of reaching an increasingly
diverse and sophisticated tourist population.
Ultimately this paper is not simply about producing touristic arts and
crafts trails
but about encompassing inspired combinations of previously discrete
tourism
spheres within non-competitive , mutually supportive synergies. Fundamentally
it
is about rural and regional economic, cultural, social and ecological
sustainability
and revitalisation. This it has been suggested can be achieved through
drawing
upon the opportunities provided in harnessing the singularity, uniqueness
and
authenticity offered by arts and crafts object/product especially in
non urban, non
traditional tourist, and disadvantaged (tourist) areas. Ultimately such
events and
initiatives need to be part of a defined overall strategy linking trails
and regions
and amalgamating the tourism, arts and crafts, heritage and cultural
spheres.
Robert Jadin
CULRURAL HERITAGE AWARENESS
- Under construction
CONTACTS
- Under construction
MEMBERSHIP
CONFERENCES :2009
October. The Medinas 2030 conference which took
place in Marseille, France.The presentation is published on:http://www.eib.org/projects/events/seminar-on-mediterranean-cities.htm
(See
the Photo)
- Under construction.
NETWORK
- Under construction.
|
.jpg)
