Title: Routledge Handbook of Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa / edited by Dallen J. 22 Air Route Development and Transit Tourism in the Middle East 290 Bojana Spasojevic and Gui Lohmann.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Current research interests include issues of tourism development in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and heritage tourism. Nyaupane (eds), Cultural heritage and tourism in developing countries: a regional perspective (pp eds) (2009) Cultural heritage and tourism in developing countries: a regional perspective.
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 2 OF THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE
Michael Hall
In the north, the Shatt al-Arab River delta is formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris. This chapter has provided an introduction to the physical geography of the Middle East and North Africa.
THE MIDDLE EAST AND 3 NORTH AFRICA
The spread of Islam is one of the most influential factors determining the borders of the Middle East and North Africa today. Middle Eastern food reflects these issues well and has become one of the world's iconic foods in the Middle East and beyond the region (Zubaida & Tapper 1994).
TOURISM TRENDS AND 4 PATTERNS IN MENA
The country is home to a rich and varied heritage dating back to the earliest part of the Anthropocene. Morocco's tourism success is largely a result of the country's political stability in a rather unstable region.
INTANGIBLE HERITAGE AND 5 CULTURAL PROTECTION
IN THE MIDDLE EAST
All this leads to a state of cultural erosion, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East. The stories are told in the Palestinian dialects fallahi (rural) or madani (urban), and in some cases young children tell the stories for fun (UNESCO 2006). Stories of the Banī Hilāl tribe are recorded throughout the Arab world from Table 5.1 Examples of MENA's Intangible Heritage on UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
London: Palestine Research Fund Committee. 2006) 'Reconceptualizing Tourism in the Middle East: Place, Heritage, Mobility and Competitiveness', in R. 2005) 'An Overview of Middle Eastern Dances: Relating to Current American Belly Dance', Bameda, 6 November. OECD (2011) The Socio-Economic Context and Impact of the 2011 Events in the Middle East and North Africa Region.
DECIPHERING ‘ARAB 6 HOSPITALITY’
The theology of hospitality in an Arab context can be located in the three Abrahamic (monotheistic) faiths - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. He was famous in the Arab world for his extreme generosity towards others (see Stetkevych 2000). Shryock's (2004) ethnography of Balga Bedouin living on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan, illustrates the implementation of hospitality regimes in relation to gender dimensions.
Indeed, the boundaries of Islamic theology are being challenged, especially in the context of the influences of modernity and globalization. Subsequently, limitations in the availability of cultural ambassadors of hospitality in parts of the Arab world may threaten the long-term survival of formal Arab forms of hospitality within a regional context. However, since Islam is the dominant religion in the region, Arab hospitality is inextricably linked to Islamic forms of hospitality.
TOURISM AND INDIGENOUS 7 COMMUNITIES
This outcome is partly attributable to the fact that 'the transfer of Western science and technology, often uncritically, has failed to transform the lives of the majority of people in the global south' especially in Africa (Briggs 2013: 232) . Discussions of the IQ impasse, as well as extensions on decolonization, are detailed in the subsequent section. A Way Forward: IQ and Decolonizing Approaches to Indigenous Research IQ scholars have celebrated the fact that their work over the years has led to the resonance of the term 'Indigenous knowledge' for academics and practitioners.
Decolonizing ontology raises fundamental questions about the nature of reality and the nature of the human being in the world. As described in the previous section, tourism research related to indigenous communities should adopt indigenous methodologies and should be underpinned by a restorative and emancipatory ethic. The focus may be on the process through which IK is implemented, practiced, embodied and/or A key element is the involvement of the community as a key decision maker in the research process.
URBAN HERITAGE IN THE 8 MIDDLE EAST
The early achievements of the ASM were recognized by two Aga Khan Awards for the revitalization projects it initiated in the Medina. Starting around Rainbow Street and the preservation of the modernist Rainbow Cinema, old houses have been converted into restaurants or others. The countries of the Arab Gulf region (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen and Oman) were relatively latecomers in recognizing the heritage value of historic urban quarters and their tourism potential.
Bastakiya today exemplifies many of the problems tourism faces in the private-public urban form traditionally favored in Islamic cultures. Even so, an opening of the facades would be at odds with the traditional character of the area. 2003) 'Conservation-based cultural, environmental and economic development: The case of the walled city of Fez', in L.
RELIGION, PILGRIMAGE 9 AND TOURISM IN THE
MIDDLE EAST
As such, this section focuses on some of the research related to pilgrimage and religious tourism in the region and focuses more specifically on the challenges affecting the development and growth of pilgrimage and religious tourism. In MENA, the biggest challenge to maintaining the growth of pilgrimage and religious tourism is the internal geopolitical conflicts inherent in one of the most historically conflicted regions in the world (Timothy & Daher 2009). Pilgrimage and religious tourism do not exist in a socio-political and spatial vacuum, as they are influenced by the politics and social trends of the areas where they take place.
As noted earlier, MENA is one of the world's major destinations for pilgrimages and religious tourism due to its importance to the faith traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. 2013) 'Tourism in the Middle East: Conflicts, crises and economic diversification, some critical issues', International Journal of Tourism Research Introduction: The territory of the anthropology of pilgrimage', in A. 2016) 'Interfaith tourism behavior in religious heritage sites: House of the Virgin Mary Case in Turkey', International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage The Expectations of Muslim Religious Clients in the Lodging Industry: The Case of Turkey', in A.
Tourism in the Middle East has changed a lot over the decades, and the process of transformation continues. One of the main problems in studying tourism in the Middle East is the lack of accurate information and regular and reliable tourism statistics. Intra-regional tourism in the Middle East has flourished and some countries have managed to attract more Muslim tourists.
This chapter describes ongoing debates and some key issues related to Islamic tourism and culture in the Middle East. Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Change in the Middle East and North Africa, Amman, Jordan, April 4–7. Violent political unrest and tourism foreign direct investment in the Middle East', International Journal of Tourism Research.
CONTEMPORARY JEWISH 11 TOURISM
The chapter's first section contextualizes the concept of Jewish pilgrimage, the centrality of the Jewish Temple to the development of Jewish perceptions of pilgrimage, and the consequences of the demise of this center (Luz & Collins-Kreiner 2015). It also discusses the dramatic changes in Jewish pilgrimage that occurred during the modern period, particularly as part of the rise of Jewish society within the State of Israel. Arguably, the Wailing Wall and its surroundings constituted the most iconic landmark and the fulcrum of processes that played a role in the increasing importance of the religious sphere in contemporary Israel.
The most popular site of this type is the tomb of Baba Sali in the town of Netivot in the Negev desert region of southern Israel. Solidarity tours of Jewish visitors and interaction tours are also part of the heritage tourism market and are currently offered by various organizations in Israel. The fourth conclusion is that the softening of national identity and ethnicity has been one of the most characteristic features of the development of Jewish tourism in the last decade.
CHRISTIAN TOURISM IN THE 12 MIDDLE EAST
Food is often mentioned in the Bible and in many cases a romanticized part of the scriptures: manna from heaven, turning water into wine, and the Last Supper. Last Supper performances), and the spirit of the Holy Land (e.g., Jewish eating habits and ancient spices). The end product in this section is the increasingly popular trails that traverse various parts of the Middle East (Trono & Imperiale 2018).
Like other Christians, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons) actively travel to the Holy Land to follow in Jesus' footsteps and feel the spirit of the places associated with his life and ministry (Guter 2006; Olsen 2006). However, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria are also part of the wider Bible-based Holy Land. 2000) 'Commodification and Thematization of the Sacred: Changing Patterns of Tourist Consumption in the "Holy Land"', in M.
MENA AS A CRITICAL 13 MEETING POINT
BETWEEN TOURISM AND WATER RESOURCES
One of the explanations for this process of degradation of water resources can be found in the following alarming data. Treated wastewater comprises 31 percent of the total water supply for agriculture, and its share in total water resources in Israel is 18 percent (Government of Israel, Water Authority 2017). Untreated wastewater ends up in the environment, polluting the soil, water sources and the sea.
Finally, in the specific context of the use of water resources, all the above-mentioned achievements "cost". The total annual water consumption of the global tourism industry was calculated by Gössling et al. The impact of the tourism industry on freshwater resources in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, North African and other regions.
OIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST 14
With aviation growth projections in the order of 3-6 percent annually (Airbus 2018; IATA 2016) and the Middle East's heavy reliance on aviation, both in terms of intercontinental and intra-regional travel, air travel is therefore central. to the arguments in this chapter. The Middle East plays a particularly important role in relation to both oil and tourism (Friedl 2010), although it is important to understand that the countries of the Middle East are very different in terms of oil resources, tourism sector development, social systems and stability. Second, and in the face of dwindling resources and low prices, several Middle Eastern countries are now aggressively developing their tourism sectors to diversify the economy.
The purpose of this chapter is to critically discuss the role that oil plays in the development of tourism in the Middle East and especially in the Gulf countries. The importance of oil resources from the Arabian Peninsula is briefly summarized before assessing attempts to diversify the national economies of oil exporting countries using a case study of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In the past, the world was particularly dependent on Saudi Arabia's production policies and adjustments.
