Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
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Local Community Engagement and Awareness As an underlying principle in tourism planning, it is crucial for governments to assess and develop a clear understanding of communities’ attitudes and perceptions towards tourism. From there, methods can be deployed to: Create awareness of the benefits of tourism as a force for economic growth. Engage local communities in tourism development planning. Instill a sense of pride in locals related to their cultural values and authenticity when engaging in tourism activities.
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Carrying Capacity Each tourism destination should identify and sustain an acceptable level of visitation, as a management tool for tourism planning and development. Identifying a carrying capacity threshold is particularly important to manage tourists’ flow and ultimately prevent compromising the environmental and cultural integrity or negatively affecting the visitors’ experience. Depending on the nature of the tourism product — whether a heritage or archaeological site, a natural reserve, or a historical neighborhood, town, or city — there are comprehensive methodologies and tools that can be utilized to determine carrying capacity and limits of acceptable change. Based on that, management systems, guidelines, and design solutions are introduced in the tourism product development process to mitigate negative impacts on built and natural heritage, intangible heritage, and indigenous local communities.
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Six farm experiences are being developed with the support of the USAID Building Economic Sustainability through Tourism (BEST) project, whereby local farmers and their families introduce visitors to a typical day on their farms. For farmers to make meaningful profit, there was a need to diversify and alter the farms’ operations, designing services, and experiences to meet visitors’ needs. As interest in agri-tourism in As-Salt region continued to grow, the planning process deployed the above three elements. For each farm, visitation capacity was defined in terms of frequency of tours and maximum number of participants per tour group. As such, the visitors’ flow is maintained in a way that does not disrupt the daily life and family rituals of the local population. Additionally, visitor numbers are in line with the household capacity for experience delivery and food production, negating the tendency for commodification of local offerings. To maintain authenticity, the project designed experiences and activities showing daily affairs of the farm in its original modest ambiance. In cases of expansion, the project made design considerations to maintain the host families’ traditional daily costumes; household presentation using indigenous planting, traditional fabric and furniture; as well as the equipment and utensils they use daily. As a guiding principle, the project secured the buy-in and involvement of the hosts at the very initial stages of the process, following comprehensive awareness campaigns on the agri-tourism concept.