Protected area tourism in Jordan: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Despite the current wide-spread interest in protected area tourism, it continues to be relatively new phenomenon among Jordanians. Although much research has been conducted on this phenomenon, little attention has been focused on the study of protected area tourism in the Arab World. Given this lack of research, particularly in Jordan, the study reported here explores Jordanians visits to protected areas, focusing on their level of visitation, their connection to nature, and the motivation and constraints of these visits.

KEYWORDS:

• Protected area visitation
• Jordan
• Arab World
• motivation
• constraints
• and connectedness to nature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Malek M. Jamaliah, Ph.D, is an assistant professor in the Department of Tourism Management at the University of Jordan at Aqaba, Jordan. He received his PhD in parks, recreation and tourism management from Clemson University, USA. His research interests focus on ecotourism, sustainable tourism, climate change adaptation, and protected area management.

Mohammad M. Alazaizeh, Ph.D., is an Assistant professor at the Department of Tourism Management, the University of Jordan at Aqaba, Jordan. His research interests focus on understanding, planning for, and managing tourists and local communities in tourism destinations. Recent research has focused on understanding tourists’ experience at World Heritage Sites, crowding and carrying capacity in heritage sites, and value orientations and heritage tourism management. Methods, tools, and concepts used in this research include normative theory, indicator and standards–based management frameworks (e.g. Visitor Experience and Resource Protection [VERP], Limits of Acceptable Change [LAC], and Visitor Impact Management [VIM] frameworks), visual simulations, surveys, and qualitative research techniques.

Nidal M. Alzboun, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. His research interests focus on sustainable tourism development, sustainability practices in the hotel industry, tourism planning, tourism seasonality, and hotel management.

Yahya A. Alzghoul, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Tourism Management, the University of Jordan at Aqaba, Jordan. His research and teaching interests focus on tourism marketing, corporate social responsibility, tourist behaviour, and sustainability issues related to travel and tourism industries.

ORCID

Mohammad M. Alazaizeh http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3023-1427