Author(s)

Mohamed Marou¹, Said Azelmad², Mohamed Hanzaz³, Aissa El Bouzidi⁴

¹The Laboratory of Environment, Development and Space Management, Faculty of Lettres and Human Sciences, Kenitra, Morocco.
²The Doctoral Center of Languages, Heritage and Territorial Planning/Laboratory of Discourse, Creativity and Society Perceptions and Implications, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Fes, Morocco.
³National Institute of Urban Land Use Planning in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco.
⁴Geography Department, Faculty of Lettres and Human Sciences, Kenitra, Morocco.

Khenifra is no longer a modest city by its history and nature. The natural and cultural heritages constitute a special base of growth and prosperity on which territorial development must be founded. However, the abundance and diversity of these existing touristic sites in the province of Khenifra are in need for concrete initiatives of evaluation, empowerment and exploitation, especially those of historic and natural values. The exploitation of this patrimonial wealth is contingent on touristic animation though. However, the sector of tourism is still marginal and has no connection with the economic activities in Khenifra, because it is still confronted with the poor management of heritage. The paper proposes a conceptual framework for the evaluation of the cultural heritage as a pivotal element in sustained development and good governance in the region of Khenifra, based on the analysis of existing literature review and descriptive data. Descriptive results listed that most of the important patrimonial sites are poorly governed and marginalized; therefore, they are not contributing to the touristic attractiveness and economic prosperity of the region.

Heritage Governance, Territorial Development, Tourism, Stakeholders, Attractiveness, Territoriality

Marou, M. , Azelmad, S. , Hanzaz, M. and Bouzidi, A. (2019) Heritage Governance between the Strategies of Actors and Territorial Development Opportunities: The Case of Khenifra in Morocco. Current Urban Studies, 7, 573-586. doi: 10.4236/cus.2019.74030.