Factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit cultural heritage sites in Jordan

Abstract

This study examined the factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit the cultural heritage sites (CHS) located in the Northern Badia of Jordan, and estimated expenditures for their visit to the CHS. A questionnaire was developed to collect demographic and economic information about tourists during their visit to Jordan. Three hundred tourists were included in the survey at nine different sites during the summer of 2010. A logistic regression model was employed in the analyses. Factors that affected tourism at CHS included: education, variety of sites, multiple destinations, cost, and reasons for the visit. These factors had a significant impact on tourists' willingness to travel to CHS in the Northern Badia. This study recommends improving CHS and working closely with local communities to expand training and funding.

Keywords:

• heritage tourism
• economic development
• Jordan
• Bedouin
• logistic model

Notes

1. Badia, or badiya, which means desert. From the Arabic root bada, meaning “to be obvious, clear” (Bin-Mohammad, 1999).

2. People who live in the Badia.

3. Most of the tourists who come to Jordan come in groups. The researcher met with some of the groups and talked to them about the study. Several agreed to complete the survey.

4. The Hosmer–Lemeshow test groups the observations into 10 groups and compares observed groups with the number predicted by the logistic regression. The non-significant outcome indicated that the model prediction does not significantly differ from the observation.

5. The average expenditure/day/tourist*estimated number of tourists willing to visit the CHS = $361× 441,812 = $159,494,208.