UA, YARMOUK UNIVERSITY TO DEVELOP "RESPONSIBLE" TOURISM IN JORDAN

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A $100,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development will enable archeologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists from the University of Arkansas and Yarmouk University to develop a plan for culturally and environmentally sensitive tourism in Jordan.

In the early 1990s, a bulldozer clearing the path for a new highway outside of Amman, Jordan, cut through one of the most important Neolithic archeological sites in the world, cleaving through plaster floors and middens that dated back more than 9,000 years. The bulldozer (and the highway) continued on, but the exposed and damaged site stopped scholars in their tracks.

"You see this throughout the world - nations systematically destroying their cultural heritage for the sake of economic development," said Bill Schwab, chair of the UA department of sociology and criminal justice. "We intend to show that by preserving that heritage, Jordan can use it to develop a sustainable, responsible and educational tourist industry."

The University of Arkansas is in a unique position to help Jordan accomplish this, in part because Arkansas has experienced similar problems. Forty years ago, Arkansas established the first state-sponsored archeological survey to help identify and preserve valuable historical and archeological sites while providing outreach and education to the public.

The UA department of anthropology and the Arkansas Archeological Survey have provided graduate and professional training in cultural resource management for many years. But in 1997 a grant from the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs permitted the University’s public administration program to offer a concentration in cultural resource management - the first of its kind in the nation.

In addition, the grant enabled the U of A to help establish a similar degree program at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan. The current project continues that association between the universities and will draw heavily from the awareness and expertise that Yarmouk’s cultural resource management program generated over the past four years.

According to Schwab, Jordan represents an ideal location to illustrate how responsible management of archeological and cultural sites can protect a nation’s heritage while boosting its economy. Jordan’s current economic outlook is bleak - the result of a nation with few natural resources, located in a region of intense political strife. With 4.5 million people, Jordan’s gross domestic product amounts to $7.8 billion dollars per year. In contrast, Northwest Arkansas, home to 365,000 people as well as the U of A, brings in $9 billion each year.

Yet Jordan has an abundance of cultural riches. "There’s been continuous habitation in Jordan for hundreds of thousands of years," Schwab said. "It’s estimated that the nation contains over a million archeological sites. Virtually anywhere you plant a shovel, you’ll come up with something. You can walk around an urban area and see potsherds on the ground."

Previously, tourism has been confined to the south around the sites of Petra and the Red Sea. But Schwab says the richest archeology rests in northern Jordan. In addition to Ain Ghazal, the Neolithic site transected by the highway, this region contains ancient Roman cities and sites of religious significance to Christians and Muslims. Up to this point, however, no facilities or infrastructure have been built to support tourism in the north, and no organized system has been implemented to evaluate and preserve the cultural resources there.

The University of Arkansas and Yarmouk University hope to change that. Beginning this year, six UA faculty members and five Yarmouk faculty members will collaborate with the Jordan Ministry of Tourism and the Department of Antiquities to draft a master plan to develop sustainable, responsible tourism for the nation.

In the process, they will raise up to $4.5 million in funding, build two heritage tourism centers in the northern part of Jordan and teach local communities as well as national political leaders how to manage and protect their cultural heritage. Schwab and professor Yasser Adwan of Yarmouk University have been selected to direct the project.

This ambitious undertaking will span more than three years and will be organized into four phases. The first phase is to develop a tourism assessment plan, focusing on northern Jordan. This assessment will evaluate the archeological, environmental and cultural assets of the region to locate sites with the greatest tourist potential. It will examine existing tourist facilities, including hotels, restaurants and transportation services. It will conduct cost-benefit analyses for establishing tourism at selected sites. And it will work to identify potential tourist markets.

The second phase of the project will investigate the feasibility of building a northern Jordan heritage center in the city of Irbid. Such a center would curate exhibits and educational programs as well as provide information about sites throughout northern Jordan. It would operate in much the same way that heritage centers in the southwest United States do - coordinating tourism for nearby national parks and cultural sites.

As the project moves into phase three, scholars will begin to work much more closely with local communities, teaching them how to cultivate tourism in ways that benefit their economy without damaging local heritage. The plan targets two communities in particular: those surrounding the Roman ruins at Umm Qais and the ancient site of Umm al Jimal. Both sites represent critical locations in the northern Jordan tourist plan, representing ideal stopping points on the way to other sites and attractions.

UA and Yarmouk researchers will work with local leaders to improve tourist infrastructure, create jobs in historic preservation and curation, plan investment strategies and expand local businesses. Involving people at the local level insures that they are invested in these new developments.

"There have been problems in the past with grave robbing and site destruction. The most effective way to stop that is to make the local people stockholders in the site so that the livelihood of the whole community is affected by what happens to it," Schwab said. "It’s remarkable how quickly destructive behavior disappears under those circumstances."

The final phase of the project will establish a Community Development Academy for the purpose of training professionals and leaders in methods of cultural resource management so that they can properly administrate the new tourist industry.

"It’s a big project," Schwab conceded. "But we’re confident that it will have lasting benefits both for Jordan’s past and its future."