Jordan Times
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Project seeks to make
Wadi Rum ‘world class’ tourism destination
By Mahmoud Habboush
AMMAN — An initiative is under way to develop Wadi Rum as a “world class tourism
destination,” through empowering the local community to provide “authentic”
tourism services and products.
The USAID-funded Tourism Development Project, Siyaha, will work with
community-based and governmental organisations over the next two years to
provide training for those engaged in the tourism field and sponsor
tourism-based ventures.
“We want to work on tourism products in order to increase the income of the
area’s residents,” said Ibrahim Osta, Siyaha chief of party.
He said Siyaha will work with the local community to make handicrafts out of the
region’s natural materials such as camel hide and other items, including stone
products.
“Some people told us they can make jewellery from camel bones, tourists want
genuine local products, they don’t want them imported from China,” said Osta.
The initiative also involves measures to improve Wadi Rum’s campsites by
providing camps workers with training to make sure tourists have “safe, nice and
clean camping,” according to Osta.
A major part of the initiative is the branding and regulating the area’s nearly
430 camels, used in the tourism trade.
The branding began on Sunday with a number of stations dedicated for this
purpose and is being organised in cooperation with local societies and
governmental organisations.
“We want to make sure the camels are organised and hygienic,” said Osta, adding
that regulations would be in place to ensure that unlicensed camels are not used
to transport tourists.
Camel branding has always been a common practice in the bedouin culture in
certain situations, such as to heal camels when they experience health problems
and to identify the camel owner and the tribe the owner belongs to.
Wadi Rum is home to several bedouin tribes who live in scattered camps
throughout the area and maintain a traditional pastoral culture and the
knowledge and skills related to it.
While these skills are common to most bedouin communities throughout the Arab
world, those in Wadi Rum and Petra, due to specific climatic and geographic
conditions and contacts with settled communities, have preserved a specific
knowledge related to the flora and fauna of the area.
They continue to practise traditional medicine, camel husbandry, tent-making,
craftsmanship, tracking and climbing skills, and the timeless rituals of
coffee-making and hospitality.
However, over the past fifty years, more and more bedouins have settled down
permanently or temporarily, attracted by the provision of education and health
care.
The majority of the semi-settled tribes now earn their livelihoods from the
tourism trade.
Wadi Rum is probably best known because of its connection with the British
officer T.E. Lawrence, who was based there during the Great Arab Revolt of
1917-1918.
The tourism industry enjoyed a 7.1 per cent increase in visitor arrivals during
the first five months of this year, compared to the same period last year,
according to Ministry of Tourism figures.
Preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Tourism showed that a total of
1.982 million tourists visited the country between January and May, compared to
1.850 million in the same period of 2005.
Total visitor arrivals pushed tourism receipts up by 8 per cent, generating
JD359.1 million in revenues during the stated period, compared to JD332.6
million in the first five months of 2005.