Proliferation of Tourist Activities

Upon arrival I was wondering what kind of tourists I would meet during both, my short stay without the group during the first weekend as well as during the time I was about to spend with the entire group. I was not sure whether to expect many young travellers, as the region is not easily accessible and young backpackers rarely choose a single country as destination. So I checked into the Jordan River Hostel and met my roommate, an older Chinese guy. The other guests seemed also older than the usual guest one meets in hostels in, for instance, South East Asia or Europe. A recent development in the tourism sector is the process of diversification. This diversification not only covers the type of tourists but also the type of activities and attractions countries have to offer. In this post I will give discuss how I perceived this proliferation of activities in Jordan. Generally, Jordan offers a very diversified portfolio of tourist activities, from thrilling nature hikes in Wadi Mujib and Ajloun to luxurious spa resorts at the Dead Sea. In his paper on tourism Tim Endesor covers this topic saying that seemingly every space may become attractive to tourists. This is especially observable in Jordan, a country with very different kinds of natural and human-made sights. The peace-treaty with Israel in 1994 enabled access to pilgrim sites such as the baptism site of Jesus and therewith diversified the range of touristic attractions even more. However, one group of tourists that are mentioned by Endesor has not been visible throughout my trip – backpackers. According to him backpackers are a group that seek an experience that is different from what is offered to Western tourists booking travel packages. As mentioned earlier, I believe that the conflict between and within the bordering states decreases the ability of conducting such a backpacking trip in the region.

LLM