Sunday, January 11, 2009
Senegal, without the Dakar rally, will join in the disappointment and resignation
Posted by Lesbond at Sunday, January 11, 2009The Rose Lake, mythical goal of the Dakar rally almost without interruption since the early'80s, the prevailing disappointment and resignation because this year the world's toughest rally has changed in South Africa. 
The last stage of the Dakar causing a huge buzz in the place, but today on the shores of the lake water violet whipped by the wind, no camps or fortune, or flags, or any other sign of the arrival of the caravan.
Except for some collectors of salt, the surroundings are deserted. And in the nearby town of artisans, vendors swooped on the few tourists passing by.
"Since the Dakar rally has come to Senegal, is a hard blow for us" because "it brought a lot of money," laments the chairman of the artisans of the village, Assane Kane.
The income of the artisans, who presented their works in a camp "where they ate between 200 and 400 people," then they could reach "the Senegalese 250,000 francs (381 euros) in a single day," she says.
The hotel Aliou Oumar Ndiaye recalls with nostalgia the "atmosphere" of the Dakar when installed for its customers Finnish, Swedish and French "Mauritanian stores. "Economically it was interesting. We could win between 10 and 15 times more than normal in a month," he explains.
The last minute cancellation of terrorist threats by the 2008 edition of the Dakar and his move to Argentina and Chile in 2009 makes grinding teeth of tourism professionals. Have "an impact because we have lost the rally represents a loss of revenue for our hotel," Ndiaye said.
The rally attracted between 200 and 300 people, "the president of the hoteliers Lake Rosa, Idrissa Diop. When he owned a camp of the rally came to win five million francs (7,622 euros) in one day.
Cheikh Ba, installed in the village of artisans from a decade ago, sells musical instruments and traditional paintings, including two paintings depicting the silhouette of two nomads with the legend "Lisbon-Dakar 2008. "I have not sold last year," laments.
But beyond the economic losses in the Lake Rose, professionals fear repercussions on tourism in Senegal.
The rally was "a great event for the promotion of Senegal because in the world, people familiar with the Dakar," said the director general of the National Agency for the Promotion of Tourism, El Hadj Malick Mbaye, although this impact unencrypted .
"The Dakar had achieved over the years a large, measured in number of competitors," he says with bitterness the secretary general of the federation of motor sports, André Mathieu, "disappointed" by the change of destination of the rally .
This year, the Lac Rose is getting a little consolation 11 January a new competition, Race Africa, driven by the Paris-Dakar tricampeón Hubert Auriol. But the Senegalese press has scarcely heeded and there has been almost no publicity surrounding the trial.
That race followed the tracks of the Paris-Dakar through France, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal, but "in terms of communication has had less impact than the Dakar rally," admits Mamadou Diallo, head of the TUI group, which announces the presence of some fifty riders on arrival. "
