The Revenge of the Sloughi II
In our last issue (La Presse, February 16), we discussed the issue of financial deficits in the balance of official cultural activities, particularly festivals, which in our country are synonymous with budgetary black holes without any return on investment. We asserted that such an anomaly is not a fatality, but rather the result of poor conception and poor management of cultural events. All over the world, this type of product generates significant profits. Moreover, the organization of such events is programmed to fill the "lean" seasons during which economic activity, especially that based on tourism, experiences a certain decline that needs to be corrected. This is the case with the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Carnival, and numerous other events of lesser magnitude around the Mediterranean, to name just a few examples from our geographical area. The reason is that such enterprises attract a large audience looking for entertainment during periods of climatic dormancy, and this helps to revitalize, for a time, many sectors that have gone into hibernation: hotels, restaurants, crafts, and more. However, the product must be truly attractive to draw a significant crowd. And that's where management comes into play. A festival is not a party organized to amuse the gallery. It is, of course, an enterprise with a playful and cultural dimension, but it is also a commercial operation in the sense that it is a product being sold to a clientele that wants to get its money's worth. To achieve this, organizers must be able to meet the demands of the public, not only through the quality of the product but also through its diversity, in order to respond to the desires of different segments of this clientele. A strategy must be developed and implemented to this end, which requires the establishment of a permanent team responsible for designing and conducting this strategy. "Do you know the latest? Some crazy person is proposing to build a 'sloughodrome'..." In the late 1980s, after a long period of observation during which I noticed that the Douz Sahara Festival was stagnating almost from its launch, I wrote a report that I sent to the officials concerned with the event to share my remarks and suggestions for evolving and ensuring the festival's sustainability. In addition to reorganizing the festival's management, I suggested developing new components of the product. In particular, I mentioned better exploiting the "sloughi" theme, which until then was limited to the pursuit of this elegant greyhound after a poor rabbit released in the middle of Hnich Square. I suggested getting to know this noble beast better through a museum, as well as organizing a race in a "sloughodrome", holding a regular sloughi market, and an international beauty contest for this breed, a way to amplify the event's aura and make Douz the permanent capital of this superb canine breed. This would constitute an extension throughout the year of one of the spin-offs of the event, or in other words, a sustainable development of the niche. The only response I got to this completely disinterested approach was the ridicule of a tourism office official who had not read my text to the end and therefore had not seen my signature. Having met him on the "Avenue" at lunchtime, this old acquaintance told me: "Do you know the latest? Some crazy person is proposing to build a 'sloughodrome' in Douz..." The other day, quite by chance, I heard on the radio that the Douz Festival, which took place from December 25 to 28, organized a sloughi race for the first time. Finally! I got my revenge. Pardon, the revenge of the sloughi.
