Program Consortium

Aid to Artisans (ATA) is a nonprofit organization specialized in working with craftspeople to develop and refine their products. ATA assists them in becoming entrepreneurs through business skills and sales training and new market development. They are experienced in finding buyers for products, and in introducing designs for export markets. Every year ATA sponsors artists from around the world to travel to the International Folk Art Market. At the 2007 market held in New Mexico, 110 artists from 40 countries and six continents exhibited. Nearly 20,000 people attended and artists’ sales increased by 31 percent over 2006, to $1.7 million, and average sales per booth were $15,000.

Solimar International is a Washington DC based tourism marketing and development firm dedicated to promoting the goals of sustainable tourism by providing demand-driven marketing, consulting, and product development services to national tourism authorities, regional tourism associations, visitor information services, and small tourism businesses. Solimar has worked with more than 350 tourism related businesses and dozens of regional organizations in 20+ countries to improve their competitiveness. Solimar takes an innovative approach to tourism development, integrating proven business solutions with many years of experience in tourism consulting, creative services, marketing, and travel operations. Solimar uses a market-oriented approach to provide business solutions through a tested business model, technical assistance, creative marketing, promotional tools, and industry linkages, while improving destination market opportunities and growth.

Solimar’s overall objective in the project is to identify the needs of the artisan sectors in Fez and Marrakech, primarily focusing on marketing and promotion.

Specific objectives to be addressed include:

1.    Assess and identify the needs of individual artisans and handcraft MSMEs in terms of promotion and marketing;
2.    Assess the promotion and marketing needs of tourist circuits which have integrated craft components;
3.    Create detailed plans for the promotion of individual and SME handcraft producers to tourist, domestic and international markets; and 
4.    Create a detailed plan for promoting tourist circuits with integrated craft components in the medinas of Fez and Marrakech.