Tourism development at the Al-Hijr Archaeological Site, Saudi Arabia: SME sentiments and emerging concerns

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate the impacts of tourism development at the Al-Hijr Archaeological Site, Saudi Arabia. Al-Hijr was inscribed as the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 but received little attention as a tourist destination until the launch of the Saudi Vision 2030 strategy in 2016, which positioned heritage tourism sites as important catalysts in the long-term transition to a post-oil economy. Via the implementation of semi-structured interviews with local tourism SME owners and senior managers between January and February 2020, several exploratory observations were made. According to study participants, who typically framed the impacts of tourism development from the perspective of their local communities as well as those of businesses, the genesis of tourism had presented several paradoxes. Whilst the UNESCO listing helped foster community support for tourism due to new economic opportunities, the opening of Al-Hijr to international tourists and the proposed scale of development proposals raised numerous concerns, including fears of ‘cultural erosion’ and unsustainable growth. This paper therefore positions itself as an important and novel step in identifying local SME stakeholder perspectives on embryonic tourism development at Al-Hijr and offers recommendations to mitigate emerging concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Al-Hijr
• heritage tourism
• tourism development
• stakeholder
• community engagement
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdulmohsen Alahmadi

Abdulmohsen Alahmadi holds a master’s degree in Tourism and Events. His research interests include rural tourism development, stakeholder engagement strategies, and heritage tourism development in Saudi Arabia.

Gareth Butler

Gareth Butler is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Events. His research interests include sustainable tourism development, heritage tourism, community engagement strategies, and tourist mobilities. He is a member of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia and a Senior Research Affiliate of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Gerti Szili

Gerti Szili is a Human Geographer with a background in urban and regional planning, environmental studies and anthropology. Her core research interests lie in investigating urban and regional regeneration practice and governance and critiquing the various ways environmental discourses are mobilised within landscapes in transition. Gerti is an elected Councillor of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia.