Tourism and local communities in Jordan

Jordan has become one of the most important destinations in the Near East, partly because of its Arabian Nights image. This study concentrates on the Jordanian local communities and their perceptions of the tourist industry in their country. Using an interdisciplinary and holistic approach, the author traces the unusal development of tourism in the Hashemite kingdom, which in many ways is untypical of a developing country. The economic, social and ecological implications for the local communities are demonstrated in this exploratory study using the examples of world-famous archaeological sites such as Petra or Jerash. This study was awarded a prize for the the interdisciplinary study at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 2006.