Clusterizzazione, gentrificazione e turismo nella città di Marrakech

The present urban layout and dynamic of Marrakech is an interesting study case of the current processes of clusterization and gentrification inducted by the tourism. With the advent of the French Protectorate a new "European" city was built outside the city walls, in the borough of Guélize. The first political and urbanistic aim was to accomodate the European population in an "European" city quite distinct from the "Arab Medina". But during this period Marrakech turned into an icon of the "Islamic world" and its Medina began to be considered the stage and the background of the tourists activities and started a tourist strategy based on an image of Marrakech corresponding to the canons and stereotypes of "orientalism". The end of the French Protectorate witnessed a new deep structural and functional upheaval in the urban setting, that in a couple of decades led to a gentrification of the Medina. From the field studies conducted in recent years within the European Union Seventh Framework Programme MEDCHANGe, emerged that a new clear clustering is ongoing into the Medina and that it is related to the migration of many individuals from Western countries who own a typical tourist accomodation called riad.