The Development of Sustainable Tourism in Al Ula city (Saudi Arabia) The introduction:The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has focused on the tourism industry to develop and increase its economy. Indeed, tourism has various benefits for countries that have embraced tourism. Tourism therefore impacts a positive effect on the growth and development of a country. The Saudi government carried out many projects in Al Ula to be a tourism city after becoming a UNESCO world attraction site (Alsumairi & Tsui, 2017). According to Bay (2014),”making Al Ula a tourist attraction site would have a substantial economic impact, stimulating development in local areas and the entire country.
” Al Ula city includes huge impractical historical and heritage sites which can attract tourists to the city. There are various benefits that Al Ula can benefit from being a tourism destination because of the unique features in the Saudi Arabian city. The significant notable tourist attraction sites in the city can be categorised into two, including Culture Heritage and Natural Heritage landmarks. The city of Al Ula is located in the North-Western region of Saudi Arabia. The city covers an average of 2,391 square kilometers. The city has an average population of about 65,000. The low population of Al Ula city has impeded the ability of the region to achieve sustainable tourism in the city.
Tourism has impacted economic pressure on the city which has contributed to significant impacts including economic, environmental, social-cultural, and religious impacts. The city of Al Ula is, therefore, impacted by risks of overtourism because of the low population in the city. The research study is thus conducted to establish strategies that can make Al Ula a sustainable tourist destination. The research will also play an impactful role in enhancing the awareness of sustainability in tourism. The Royal Commission of Al Ula city has a primary role in protecting the city. The research is, therefore, quite impactful in the growth and development of the city.
2-the research questions
1-What are the impacts of sustainable tourism in Al Ula as a tourism and heritage site?
2-What are the pros and cons of sustainable tourism in Al Ula?
3-What is the role of the local community and the Royal Commission of Al Ula?
The literature review:
According to Wan and Li (2013), Macao is one of China’s most popular tourist cities, and it is famous for the casino industry.
The researchexamined the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural impacts of tourism in this city (Wan & Li, 2013). Moreover, it evaluated the visitor’s satisfaction and the level of community from 2002 to 2009 via primary and secondary data. The study found that Macao should diversify rather than focusing only on casino industry (Wan & Li, 2013). This research will support my research in how tourism impacts the economic, environmental, and socialculture impacts compared with tourism and sustainability in Al Ula, although Macao is bigger. From the study, we can appreciate the significance of diversifying the tourism attraction factors in a specific destination.Alr Wajah et al. (2019) conducted a study that showed that local residents have impacts on perception of tourism, including economic, environmental, and sociocultural impacts.
The study also concluded that the local’s were satisfied with local tourism management (Alr Wajah et al., 2019). The investigation, however, found out that two factors impact the perception of local people (Alr Wajah et al., 2019). The first one is socio-demographics and community attachment, while the second one is the gender and distance from tourist sites. The geography of Patre is similar to Alula, which will be more helpful to analyse and use the same methodology.Alshuwaikhat and Mohammed (2017) stated that sustainability was not seen in the vision 2030 and NTP; hence, the study attempted to determine the role of sustainability and how it could be beneficial. The research also indicated the conception of sustainability that gives the reader an insight into the sustainability concept (Alshuwaikhat & Mohammed, 2017). Also, it will be an assistance to my dissertation to analyse sustainability in Saudi Arabia. However, the researcher doesnot mention particularly sustainable tourism in Al Ula. The investigation showed that KSA relies on tourism to contribute Saudi economy.
In addition, the study includes the achievement of the strategic goals in the environment, social, and economic goals.It might be appropriate in highlighting the positive and the negative impacts of tourism in Al Ula and how it can be sustainable in tourism. Al-Tokhais and Thapa (2020) indicated that the challenges of tourism in Saudi Arabia related to five UNESCO world heritage sites. It illustrates the weakness of management and conservation by the Saudi government in tourism heritage. Moreover, the authors showed that the survey results identified common challenges and concerns, including resource allocation, and obstacles to implementation (AlTokhais & Thapa, 2020). Furthermore, the research is beneficial in analysis and acquiring ideas or data about Al Ula, specifically for my study. Bay (2014) showed the significance of Al Ula as a historical place and tourism destination. The study also focused on the heritage tourism plan. The author mentioned some sections into the tourism plan in Al Ula, such as local community, government action, partnerships, collaboration, and economic aspects (Bay, 2014). These sections might be useful to describe their role to protect historical places.
The study includes many case studies in Al Ula that lead to an inclusive understanding of the city, particularly in history, to develop and sustain tourism. The study contains many case studies, one of them is Heritage tourism in the old historical District of Al Ula, which will support my dissertation to investigate the positives and negatives impacts of tourism in Al Ula.According to Alzahrain and Qasemah (2008), Al Ula is a valuable and vital city to Saudi Arabia’s economy and government. They showed that Al Ula is a vast and rich historical place and also encouraged people to invest in Al Ula’s destination as a tourism city (Alzahrain & Qasemah, 2008). In addition, the research proposed to promote and develop tourism in Al Ula. The study analysed and investigated the case study of Al Ula into extended conception. The authors focused on the case study of the advantages and disadvantages of tourism investment in Alula (Alzahrain & Qasemah, 2008).
In chapter 2, the tourism in Al Ula study mentions the impacts of tourism on the economic, environmental, and social culture that will assist my study to improve and develop sustainability in Al Ula. Hilmi et al. (2020) suggest that Saudi Arabia should modify its economy and formulate sustainable projects, such as small towns and sustainable tourism, to attain the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The study discusses climate change as a global problem (Hilmi et al., 2020). This article will be helpful inmy research, since it will provide information on how diversification of the economy of small cities like Al Ula will enhance the sustainability of tourism. Mohammed et al. (2020) studied the structuring of constructed itineraries that are utilised in guiding tourists who visit urban heritage sites in the city of Al Ula. The authors hypothesised that explicitness will participate in tourism development and put into place attractiveness (Mohammed et al., 2020).
The research will provide detailed data on sustainable tourism in the city. Thus, it is relevant to my dissertation. Moreover, they find out that the acquisition of entry and link parameters leads to revitalising the place in the sense of attaching the whole heritage site and improving the tourist’s experience. Swarbrooke (1999) gives up-to-date detailed scope of the practice and management of tourism. He gives distinct meanings of sustainable tourism from various parts of the world and different areas of tourism (Swarbrooke, 1999). Also, the author talks about major problems and recent debates and offers several examples of sustainable tourism management practice (Swarbrooke, 1999). Some of these management practices are also carried out in Al Ula to enhance sustainable tourism. Although it does not focus on Al Ula, the research will be beneficial in my study since it entails management practices related to sustainable tourism.
Zamani and Henderson (2010) are interested in the impacts of country religion on the growth of tourism in Muslim nations especially Saudi Arabia and Iran. Al Ula is a city with Islam as the main religion, thus, it influences the development and suitability of tourism. They discuss the connection between tourism and Islam as well as tourism management and policies in Saudi Arabia (Zamani & Henderson, 2010). Therefore, this study will help in my dissertation by sharing how the Islamic religion in Al Ula influences sustainable tourism. Aqaba (2017) aims at examining the effect of hotel development on sustainable tourism development. The author used questionnaires to conduct his research (Aqaba, 2017).
This paper will enhance my research in allowing extensive research on hotel development in Al Ula. Additionally, the findings indicate that there is no substantial discrepancy in the effect of hotel development on sustainable tourism development. Weber (2013) encourages the tourism business and researchers of inventions in tourism growth techniques in drastic environments. He focuses on Qatar whose main religion is Islamic, just like Al Ula (Weber, 2013).
The results indicated that Muslim communities do not frequently welcome non-Muslim tourists or mass tourism due to powerfull cultural discrepancies related to behavior. Therefore, this article will be helpful in my paper since it will provide information on how religion has influenced city tourism.
The references:Alshuwaikhat, H. M., & Mohammed, I. (2017). Sustainability matters in national -1 development visions-evidence from saSaudirabia’s vision for 2030. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), 9(3), 408. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030408Alshammaa, H. A. (2019). Sustainable Tourism Heritage Village–Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia. (Thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology). Alsumairi, M., & Tsui, K. W. H. (2017). A case study: The impact of low-cost carriers on inbound tourism of Saudi Arabia. Journal of Air Transport Management, 62, 129-145. Al-Tokhais, A., & Thapa, B. (2020).
Management issues and challenges of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 15(1), 103-110. Alzahrani.,& Qasemah. (2008). Tourism investment in Al Ula. Scientific Research. MAS Tourism Information & Research Center. Aqaba, J. (2017). The effect of hotel development on sustainable tourism development. International Journal of Business Administration, 8(4).Bay, M. A. (2014). Adobe fabric and the future of heritage tourism: A case study analysis of the old historical city of Alula, Saudi Arabia. University of Colorado at Denver.
Foreman, C. (2018). Al-Ula tourism development planned The Al-Ulaarea to the north of Medina has a wide range of historical sites that date back thousands of years. MEED Business Review, 3(5), 63. Hilmi, N., Farahmand, S., & Belaid, F. (2020). Why should Saudi Arabia diversify its economy? In Economic development in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, 89-109. Springer. Mohammad Abu Hijleh, P. (2019). Rethinking tourism in saudi Arabia: Royal vision 2030 perspective. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 8(5).
Mohamed, A. M., Samarghandi, S., Samir, H., & Mohammed, M. F. (2020). The role of placemaking approach in revitalising AL-ULA Heritage site: Linkage and access as key factors. Planning, 15(6), 921-926.Swarbrooke, J. (1999). Sustainable tourism management. Cabi. Wan, Y. K. P., & Li, X. (2013). Sustainability of tourism development in Macao, China: Sustainability of tourism development in Macao.
The International Journal of Tourism Research, 15(1), 52-65Weber, A. S. (2013). Sustainable tourism in extreme environments: Lessons from desert regions. Tourism in South East Europe, 2, 421.
Zamani‐Farahani, H., & Henderson, J. C. (2010). Islamic tourism and managing tourism development in Islamic societies: The cases of Iran and Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Tourism Research, 12(1), 79-89.
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