sustainable tourism in extreme environments lessons from desert regions

Tourism in Southern and Eastern Europe, pp. 421-434, 2013A. S. Weber: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: LESSONS FROM ...42142

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: LESSONS FROM

DESERT REGIONSUDC 338.48:504](536.4)

Alan S. Weber Received 1 March 2013Revised 28 March 2013

30 March 2013

AbstractThis paper alerts the tourism industry and researchers to innovations in tourism development strategies in extreme environments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the State of Qatar, the MENA region and other desert areas as a blueprint for cost-effective and culturally and economically sustainable tourism worldwide. This contribution analyzes the potential impact of green and ecotourism practices in some of the most extreme desert and marine ecosystems in theentire world: establishment of green building codes, incorporation of solar (photovoltaic) power into buildings, research into reverse osmosis desalination technology, scientific monitoring of coastal development, and initiatives to more efficiently manage scarce water resources. The State of Qatar contains two of the most extreme environments in the world – an arid desert with lessthan 80mm annual rain fall per year surrounded by a rapidly evaporating hypersaline sea (the Persian / Arabian Gulf), and with summer temperatures reaching to over 50˚C. Thus naturally stressed biota and water scarcity means that creating natural heritage tourism will present many challenges. In addition, the conservative Muslim traditional communities who inhabit desertsoften do not welcome mass tourism or non-Muslim tourists due to strong cultural differences, often related to behavior.Keywords Sustainable tourism, desert tourism, tourism-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Qatar

INTRODUCTION

Mass international tourism is a relatively new phenomenon linked with the rise of affordable commercial air transportation starting in the 1950s. Thus long-term environmental impacts of tourism were not known or considered as a serious factor in tourism strategy and policy development until recently. Based on the environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s, ecotourism initiatives, and UNESCO and the Brundtland Commission’s report Our Common Future (World Commission 1987), sustainable tourism has become an increasingly important factor and consideration in tourism development. The term ‘sustainable tourism’ refers to tourism that is economically, environmentally, culturally and socially sustainable over long periods of time. Each of these factors is intertwined and essential for the long term health of a tourist industry; for example, degradation and destruction of the environment that leads to unpleasant sights, smells and reduced recreation activities (such as water sports due to aquatic pollution) removes some of the original attractions of a tourist location. Tourism can also degrade and modify traditional cultures as they abandon cultural practices and previous modes of economic production which defined their cultures in

Tourism in Southern and Eastern Europe, pp. 421-434, 2013A. S. Weber: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: LESSONS FROM ...

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order to offer tourist products and services that can often be based on a false or stereotypical mythos of their society. If an attraction centers on interactions with indigenous peoples, contact with tourists which results in the abandonment of traditional dress, foods, music and customs also reduces the tourist potential of the location, impacting operators and local economies with reduced tourist dollars. Unfortunately, these processes of decline are often subtle, long-term and difficult to measure. Thus ‘imagined communities’ with a specific economic dimension are often constructed in order to attract tourist dollars without regard to the role that they play in threatening cultural heritage.

Sustainable tourism addresses questions of equity with respect to development, both intergenerational equity (future generations are able to meet their resource needs), and intragenerational equity (goods and services are equally distributed in the current economy). The Gulf region’s pressing need to solve tourist impacts from water scarcity and natural environmental stressors will reduce costs and produce higher efficiencies in its tourism industry, and will add to an evidence-based knowledge base for sustainable tourism practice. The decline of the traditional Falaj water distribution system in Oman and debates over water diversion to industry and tourism are one example of how critical water policy issues are to the Gulf region (Zekri et al. 2011, 81-82). Water scarcity is now defined as a serious regional security threat and has already become a major source of conflict, for example, between Israel and Jordan.

The term equity–meaning that current stakeholders including tourism operators, the government, local communities and the local workforce all share in tourism benefits and that future generations as well can draw on these same benefits–is often viewed as a key pre-requisite for healthy sustainable tourism. In addition, since different stakeholders often have different goals and perceptions of tourism and tourism development strategies, negotiation, mutual respect, and transparency must also be practiced, and any large asymmetries in power generally eventually end in a dysfunctional scenario. For example, minority cultures who have had their land forcefully appropriated by governments for tourism will not participate in the tourism workforce or may even attempt to sabotage tourism efforts, for example, by displaying hostile attitudes in public spaces, or not serving foreigners in their shops or restaurants, or in extreme cases arson and sabotage of tourist infrastructure. Media reports of violence can decimate a tourist location, thus disgruntled locals can use real or threatened violence as a weapon against specific tourist operators, the government, or the economic health of a society as a whole (since tourism impacts all sectors of a nation’s economy). This strategy is used in Bahrain at the present time by anti- government groups such as the February 14 Youth Coalition who periodically issue threats of mass public demonstrations, which often do not materialize. However, these threats trigger U.S. Department of State Travel Alerts warning U.S. citizens of potentially dangerous situations (the U.S. is a major ally and trading partner of Bahrain). Thus business and tourist travellers avoid the country, weakening the economy–which is diversifying itself away from oil production into finance and tourism–and subsequently eroding the power base of the ruling monarchy.


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Interest in sustainable tourism has become so widespread and even internationally normative that its praxis will undoubtedly merge with traditional tourism and we simply use the term ‘tourism’ in the future, with the implication that its very definition will encompass environmentally conscious activity and long term sustainable thinking. Economic concerns almost always trump any other concerns in a nation’s developmental strategies, including tourism. Thus if sustainable tourism can be shown to increase profits by attention to all its key factors, then it will gain wider acceptance. For example, if it can be shown that fuel and water conservation can increase tourism profits (self-evident) without negatively impacting hedonistic expectations, then this practice will gain popularity. Similarly, if environmental protection can be shown to extend the life of both natural and man-made tourist attractions from negative human impacts that promote boom-bust cycles and decrease desirability and hence reduce tourist revenue, then sustainable tourism will become standard practice. And if social and cultural sustainability can be maintained, i.e. local communities support and add value to tourist activities rather than drive tourist dollars away by violence or indifference, while at the same time maintaining their unique social identity, then sustainable tourism will remain on a sound footing.

This paper argues that if desert tourism practices and strategies are adopted as baseline practice, then areas which are more water rich can have added value such as man-made and natural water sport area opportunities, ornamental gardens, domestic fresh food production and specialty products like fruits and wines, etc. Very little peer-reviewed research on sustainable tourism in extreme desert environments exists at the current time, with the exception of Iran, China, Israel, Australia, and Jordan. However, much of the desert tourism in the Middle East – for example, off-road vehicle travel, desert trekking on foot or with camels, Bedouin lifestyle homestays (tent encampments), and ecotourism currently only appeal to small niche markets, such as the environmentally conscious traveller. Also, due to the extreme nature of desert ecosystems, mass tourism in these areas must be tightly regulated and monitored as environmental carrying capacity can be rapidly overwhelmed. For example, several indigenous medicinal plants used in folk medicine in the Gulf region are under threat of extinction from over- harvesting, soil compaction and direct destruction by off road vehicle use and the concentration of traditional free range animal herding on to settled ranches (Azaizeh2003, 98-108; Hammer 2009, 552).

In 2001, Weaver described deserts and grasslands as ‘Cinderella’ ecosystems, since in contrast to typical ‘poster’ landscapes such as rain forests, they are waiting to be discovered as tourist destinations (2001, 189). In a 2004 survey of preferred tourist ventures in the Negev desert, respondents indicated that the themes of “nature and landscape” were the most preferred (Reichel and Uriely 2008, 31). The Gulf region, with the exception of Dubai, has been relatively unknown as a tourist destination for recreational, natural and cultural heritage tourism until the last decade, and the area contains many little known natural attractions as well as significant unexcavated archaeological sites (Wigand 1986, 238). Only in the mid-1990s did the Gulf nations relax their rules about tourist visa sponsorship, and a non-Hajj-related tourist visa to Saudi Arabia is still difficult to obtain. Recent interest in the uniqueness of desert ecosystems must be met with rational protection schemes or they may be lost for future enjoyment. Thus, more empirical cross-sectional attitudinal research needs to be


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carried out on tourist expectations in extreme environments (and this is a complicated question because of the continuous variable of ‘just how extreme’). For example, a looming question is what amenities will travellers be willing to forego in order to preserve desert environments (carbon offset travel taxes, shorter showers, fewer and smaller linens and towels, and limits on climate controls in rooms, etc.). The importance of each of these ‘creature comforts’ for individual tourists is highly individualized.

DISCUSSION

Extreme environments – such as Alpine, Arctic, Antarctic, and Desert ecosystems – include Drylands and Deserts, which can be defined as arid regions with low soil moisture in which evapotranspiration forces exceed precipitation; in other words areas which contain a low aridity index (<0.65), a measure which represents the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (Smith 2009, 8). Drylands cover approximately 40-50% of the earth’s land mass, thus they are highly significant biomes. Although the word desert conjures up the hyper-arid regions of the Sahara or the Rub’ al-Khali, Drylands occur throughout populated areas of the Mediterranean sea, with Cyprus for example recording an aridity index of 0.4, necessitating careful water management policy in conjunction with tourist growth strategies (Donta and Lange2008, 15). These regions may contain significant ground water sources that can be utilized for agriculture. With mechanical pumping of groundwater, however, the withdrawal rate can easily exceed the recharge rate from rainfall and river and lake seepage. Numerous small geographical areas, in fact, both in antiquity and recently, have been pumped dry forcing outmigration.

Desert environments must by necessity be managed by ‘leave no trace’ policies, proper waste and wildlife management, and minimum impact strategies. These biomes are easily damaged, slow to regenerate and thus lose their appeal to tourists of all persuasions when human impacts become unmistakably evident. And of course man- made desert heritage sites such as qasoor (castles), tombs, and cities, are unique and can never recover from human damage except through artificial reconstruction, a particularly acute problem for the Petra monuments in Jordan which are undergoing rapid deterioration from human activities (Comer 2012, 1-28). Thus extra special care must be taken in their preservation. Even in built environments like modern cities and villages, noise, unpleasant odors, palpable tension and unfriendliness from locals (often the result of poor tourism policy planning which does not engage local business and thus leads to resentment and alienation), the ambience or the surroundings often strongly determine whether a tourist experience is memorable or forgettable. In the age of the cell phone camera, online tourist blogs and rating sites like TripAdvisor or Virtual Tourist, tourist operators must be extremely vigilant about minimizing the fallout from disgruntled tourists who have legitimate concerns about avoidable environmental conditions that negatively affected their activities – for example, electricity or water outages from unmanaged utility use in areas of scarcity, litter, overuse of the environment, overcrowding, and even unhygienic conditions such as Harmful Algae Blooms and pathogenic bacteria in recreational waterways. These


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potential problems are all manageable given proper foresight and collaboration among local stakeholders, including business and government.

Tourism in Jordan’s deserts such as the Nabataean sites in Petra and the desert of Wadi Rumm indicate how heavy use can be destructive; for example, the sandstone carved buildings of Petra are rapidly wearing away through constant touching of the stone and walking inside the buildings (Mustafa 2011, 88-96). Flash flooding due to the destruction of the Nabataeans’ elaborate water management system is also causing serious weathering. In addition, in Wadi Rumm, marketed for its association with Colonel T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), the skyrocketing number of visitors as well as Bedouin guides themselves are causing serious environmental damage through trash and offroad vehicle use: as Reid and Schwab point out, “Until 1996, Wadi Rum was considered an environmentally protected area. Tourism surged during the 1990s, and many found the spectacular landscape, desert life and recreational activities irresistible. The area’s infrastructure was not able to handle the onslaught of tourists that continued unabated” (440).

Applying desert conservation principles to more robust environmental conditions, such as tropical regions which regenerate more rapidly and break down organic wastes and obliterate human traces through prolific plant growth, heavy rains, flooding, or the sheer geographical area which minimizes specific concentrated impacts, will insure that even these tourist environments will retain charm, freshness, tranquility, and hygiene – many of the same elements that attracted tourists to the sites in the first place.

Looking in depth at the natural features of deserts teaches us that each locale is unique, and that successful tourism takes into account what is different and environmentally interesting for those who enjoy hiking, bird and animal watching, observing plants and distinct geomorphology. The types of landforms and flora and fauna in deserts are thus unique, exotic and surprising in diversity to those who are unfamiliar with them. Local inhabitants sometimes view their own deserts as wasteland and harsh and uninviting– unsuitable for farming or even herding. Eshraghi et al. describe the unique geomorphism of Iran’s Kavir-e-Lut deserts that would certainly draw adventure tourists: these two desert regions “are vast and, relatively unexplored regions in the eastern part of central Iran. The deserts include three of the world’s phenomena. First, Ghourd: the world’s highest sand pyramids which are huge sand dunes 2000m long and500m high. Second, Yardang or Kalut: an area of 150 km long, 70 km wide and 80m high, which comprises long deep moats (ditches) created by storms and floods. Third, being the hottest point in the world as recorded by the satellite images. Iran deserts also contain a variety of sand deposits such as seif, barkhan, yardang, sand pyramids (Ghourd), sand channels and nebka” (2012, 1188; Eshraghi et al. 2010).

Green building codes and green architectural practices, which are becoming increasingly common throughout the Gulf region, are an obvious feature of any sustainable tourism strategy. In 2009, the Qatar Green Building Council was established through Qatar Foundation to conduct environmental research, develop green building policies, and raise awareness. Much of the technology for energy conservation, such as heat pumps, building insulation, building siting to maximize or minimize solar irradiation, smart-appliances, and centralized or district cooling and


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heating, have been known since the 1970s. In the Gulf in particular, which only enjoys about 2 months of pleasant outdoor weather per year, a tremendous amount of energy is consumed by air conditioning since most buildings until recently were not insulated in any fashion. Why has green building not taken hold in so many parts of the world? The answer is complex – partially due to the ready international availability of inexpensive oil for electricity, transportation, heating and cooling until the 1970s modern architects could ignore energy-saving aspects of civil engineering. The aesthetics of newness and innovativeness have dominated modern architecture as opposed to a vision of long-term sustainability and energy saving measures. Now due to the fears of hydrocarbon depletion, impending resource scarcity, and global warming, architects are rethinking building design.

Ironically, many traditional building techniques in the pre-electricity and pre-air conditioning era were extremely energy-conscious. For example, the thick mud adobe buildings which were once common throughout the Gulf served as large thermal masses that cooled during the night and protected against sharp daytime temperature increases. Small windows and closeable wooden shutters and palm frond roof protection were also frequently used, as is common in all hot countries. Architects, in part in reaction to the excesses of the ‘Dubai effect’ in which outlandish designs were encouraged, are returning to some of these traditional designs both as effective energy saving strategies, but also to preserve traditional culture. The new Qatar National Mosque, which is unmistakably a traditional Gulf-style building, exemplifies this approach (see figure 1).

Fig. 1: Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab Mosque – Doha, Qatar showing large thermal mass building as protection against desert heat. The walls are several feet thick.

Source: www.ombahpictures.com


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Another iconic Gulf architectural feature also found in Iran that has been studied in modern times from an engineering standpoint is the barjeel or wind tower. The wind tower (or bâdgir, ‘wind catcher’ in Persian) cools by taking advantage of air thermal gradients, as well as in some designs, evaporative cooling by forcing air across underground water canals (Haggag 2008; Santamouris et al. 2006). Figure 2 depicts a traditional wind tower which are fast disappearing from Gulf cities, although sometimes they are incorporated into new buildings as an architectural style feature without being a functioning technology for reducing air conditioner costs. A striking example of energy and maintenance savings by using traditional building techniques can be drawn from the author’s home institution, the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar in Doha, Qatar. The medical college underground parking lot (built circa 2003) is cooled and ventilated by an extremely noisy and large centralized air conditioner with metal air ducts. The system leaks water condensate on to the concrete causing cracking, and requires extensive repairs to the unit and ducts several times per year. In contrast, the underground parking lot of the engineering building of Texas A & M University in Qatar right next door (built circa 2005-6), was designed with overhead wind tower- style pyramidal ducts which funnel air into the space below requiring no air conditioning unit at all. The electricity savings probably reach into the 10s of thousands of dollars per year for the Texas A & M building for this static and permanent solution to building cooling based on the traditional principles of the barjeel.

The barjeel is one example where restoration of old towers would not only re-establish a traditional urban feature of Gulf cities, but would also result in energy savings coupled with modern air conditioning. Barjeel construction and renovation thus simultaneously contribute to both economic and cultural sustainability. Analogously in the Greek Islands, abandoned windmills across the Cyclades were once used to pump water and grind grain and there is no reason that they cannot be restored to functional use to generate electricity or operate mechanical pumps on a small scale.


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Fig. 2: Traditional Gulf barjeel or wind tower for building cooling – passive cooling technology has been traced to ancient Egypt

Source: http://fc09.deviantart.net

The aridity of desert environments poses special problems for both tourism policy and governments who are challenged to produce enough clean water for local populations and tourist activities. The problem is severe in Qatar with less than 80 mm of average rainfall per year (Batanouny 1981), and with aquifers that have been contaminated by salt water intrusion or pumped dry since the introduction of gasoline powered pumps in the 1930s. Thus almost 100% of residential water needs in Qatar are met by desalination of sea water (which requires large amounts of energy) and old and leaking pipes cause almost 35% of treated water to leak out of the distribution network. According to Qatar’s National Development Strategy, “precious aquifer water is largely wasted through open field irrigation methods for crops of low value. Large volumes of wastewater go uncollected, untreated and unused” (QNDS 2011, 9). In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Business Monitor’s 2011 tourism report warns that “over the coming decade and beyond we expect water scarcity to feature more prominently in Middle Eastern security issues” (51). Since tourists generally use much more water than locals on a per capita basis, water scarcity can seriously impede tourist growth and generate resentment, especially if locals are forced to conserve while tourists use water profligately. Qatar is specifically addressing its water issues by sponsoring research into more cost effective desalination, such as reverse osmosis membranes which require less energy to extract fresh water, and treating the huge amounts of produced water (PW) generated by the oil and gas industries, or injecting this water back into wells.


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The Greek islands and other southern Mediterranean locales have already confronted some of these water problems – through the capture of air conditioning condensate, and the reuse of grey water to name just a few simple strategies. Essex et al.’s detailed study of the water conservation strategies on the arid island of Mallorca provides an example of the research and evidenced-based approach that should inform sustainable tourism in arid and semi-arid regions. A variety of strategies were attempted to solve water scarcity–some successful and some that had to be abandoned–such as reservoir building, bore hole drilling for aquifer recharge, and the daily shipping of water from the Ebro valley in Spain (abandoned as too expensive) (Essex et al.2004, 16-20). The long-term results from these initiatives are not yet known, yet it is notable that there was widespread recognition internationally and by Mallorcans themselves, who depend heavily on tourism, that the water dilemma needed to be solved or else tourism would be seriously and permanently threatened on the island.

Typical local attitudinal problems concerning deserts and the concept of ‘wasteland’ among local populations is critical to the development of sustainable desert tourism. Wasteland refers to land that appears to be unproductive and useless, i.e. containing thin or highly alkaline or acidic soils, extreme dryness, or high natural animal densities that denude vegetation and cause erosion. If locals themselves do not value the aesthetic dimensions of desert regions, they will not think creatively about the tourist potential of these lands. There is also a fundamental attitudinal difference in outlook between hedonistic tourism and conservation-based, sustainable or eco-tourism. Several empirical studies have indicated that internationally tourist industry operators believe that sustainable tourism practices require a trade-of and potential reduction in revenues (Moeller, Dolnicarb, and Leischa 2011, 156; Berry and Ladkin 1997, 433-440; Knowles et al. 1999, 255-265). Thus education and training of both operators and tourists themselves based on evidenced-based practice is fundamental for both extreme and non-extreme environments: as Hergesell points out, consumers are ultimately the ones who choose to conduct tourist activities in a sustainable, energy-conscious manner based on a long-term perspective: “supply-side measures can only be truly effective if tourists accept these changes and consume less energy-intensive goods and services” (2011a, 98; Sharpley 2006).

Hergesell and Zins in a study of tourists on the coast of Slovenian further uncovered in2011 the problem that environmental attitudes are context-specific with tourists acting more hedonistically and less environmentally conscious when on holiday: “the influence of environmental values is strongly determined by the context and suggests that most people behaving less environmentally friendly on vacation compared to home do so for internal reasons (disinterest, inconvenience) and only secondarily for external reasons (lack of infrastructure)” (2011b, 101).

The Al Maha Resort (Emirates Group) in the desert of the United Arab Emirates claims to combine both luxury and ecotourism principles. Each of the 42 individual units contains its own swimming pool and a high level of service (average room rate 1,000 to2,500 USD per night), but the entire complex sits within a protected reserve off limits to camel grazing (Ryan and Stewart 2009, 293). The 27 km2 Al Maha enclosure in which the resort sits features low impact exclusion zones where rangers are attempting to replant native trees, shrubs and plants such as acacia, date palm, ghaf and harda as

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well as large animals such as the Arabian Oryx and Thomson’s gazelles. Although features such as swimming pools in the midst of extremely arid land seem counter- intuitive along with the high-consumption patterns of the Al Mahaguests, proponents argue that the fees generated by this high end tourism help to finance the regeneration of the desert land and provide incentives to protect native species and nurture them until the previous ecosystem–which had been compromised by animal overgrazing– becomes more self-sustainable (i.e. generates a micro-climate that will no longer require artificial irrigation). The project also brings increasing environmental awareness to the Gulf region, which is generally quite low among nationals with recycling of waste virtually non-existence and water usage rates which are 3 times the international average in countries such as Qatar and UAE. The main reason is that Gulf governments do not charge water tariffs to citizens or else heavily subsidize water and electricity services (Al-Mohannadi 2003, 362-6). Thus if there is little concern among locals about sustainable practices, this is compounded by tourists’ apparent unwillingness to change behaviors towards more eco-friendly practices even when philosophically they are oriented towards environmentalism (McKercher and Prideaux2011, 326; Anable, Lane, and Kelay 2006).

Cultural sustainability is the final part of the equation of long term sustainable tourist policy thinking and an area where desert tourism efforts can provide instructive case studies and baseline qualitative evidence for an evidence-based approach that can be applied to other countries and regions. This is simply because in the MENA and Gulf regions, cultural ties and cultural heritage are fiercely guarded and preserved and any tourism initiative in the Arab-speaking world must take this fact into account. The local cultural concerns and problems that arose in the development of the desert areas of the Nabataean ruins in Petra, Jordan are a well documented and studied case that demonstrates the impacts that tourism and the mass influx of foreigners can have on local Bedouin (Arabic bedu) populations in the Middle East. Tourism accounted for14.7% of Jordan’s total GDP in 2008 (Al-Haija 2011, 93). Both Webster (1987, 91) and Hawker (2006) have shown how ‘imagined’ communities are created among Arab peoples in Qatar and the UAE when faced by large expatriate populations. Qataris make up only 14% of the population of Qatar and Emiratis only about 15% of the UAE. Hawker states: “Bedouinism provides a trope around which a collective nationalidentity can be assembled and presented to outsiders as a clear encapsulating image ofwho the people of the Emirates are” (2006, 1).

Bedouin culture has become symbolically dominant in the Gulf due to the royal monarchies’ alignment with this cultural practice, although it is just one of many Arab and non-Arab sub-groups in the region. Traditionally, the Gulf has sustained a diverse mixture of cultures, such as settled Arabs (hadar), manumitted slaves, fisherman, traders, pearl divers, and Bedouins, who were primarily nomadic pastoralists and raiders. Also, indigenous communities of Indian and Persian traders have existed throughout the Gulf since at least the 18th century and more probably for more than a millennium. However, despite the diversity of the Gulf (which has recently been confirmed genetically by the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Shafallah Center), the imagery, dress, customs and attitudes of the Bedouin have been adopted as the national identity and national persona, most noticeably in Qatar, UAE and Kuwait. Cultural artifacts include hunting with hawks, the ardha dance, goat hair tents, camel


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rearing, wearing the thobe (also called dishdasha and kandoura) and abaya, and display of sword or khanjar (dagger) and images of these practices pervade the media and every day life. The embracing of this imagined identity has clearly been in response to the onslaught of foreign workers in the Gulf who make up more than 80-85% of the total populations of the UAE and Qatar, for example. This is a clear example of how expatriate influence, which is similar but more long lasting than tourist influence, can alter a traditional lifestyle. With fewer western and Asian expatriates, many of the Gulf societies would undoubtedly maintain a more diverse dress code, more overt western practices, and allow the more open expression of other cultures and religions since they would not be in fear of cultural erosion, often expressed in newspapers as the loss of Islamic values.

In the Petra region, the Jordanian government forcibly removed the Bdul and other semi-settled Bedouin tribes out of their dwellings beginning in 1975 since they were living in the monuments themselves (stone houses and tombs of the former Nabataean civilization) and purportedly damaging them through their human activities, such as wood fires. Some went willingly because of the promise of government electricity, piped water, and education. However, due to the local population’s desire to capture tourist dollars, they began inventing a ‘neo-Bedouinism’ or even a ‘pseudo- Bedouinism’ based on tourist expectations (Weber 2011, 128-41). The problem became so acute that The UNESCO Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity declared the Bedouin cultures of Petra and nearby Wadi Rumm as protected entities in 2005. The UNESCO proclamation points out that “the increase of desert tourism and its demand for ‘authentic Bedu culture’ may lead to its distortion” (2005). Thus although tourism may bring much needed income to local populations, it can also change traditional cultural patterns in ways that are not always evident to the culture itself (Tarawneh 2009). The Arabian Gulf countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are particularly sensitive to this issue because of their unique conservative Muslim culture, and countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Qatar (until recently) have rejected mass tourism in favor of MICE activities or small niche tourism or regional tourism precisely because of the fear that the foreign tourists will alter their long heritage and traditions which they have closely safeguarded and developed. Approximately 70% of current travel to Qatar is business-related since the country has avoided mass tourism partly due to the lack of natural attractions, but also because of local distaste for western behaviors such as alcohol consumption and immodest dress.

However, the hosting of the FIFA World Cup football matches in Doha, Qatar in 2022 will provide an excellent case study and contrast with the previous MICE and business- centered tourist strategy of the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA). Some positive outcomes related to sustainable tourism if the event is properly managed include: increasing awareness of the beauty of the desert among football fans who take side trips to the desert, governmental experience in managing mass events in extreme environments (there is already a knowledge base about this aspect of desert tourism from Jordan), and managing water resources during mass tourism events. However, negative impacts could be the opposite if there is improper planning: water shortages, bans and limits on water use, and environmental damage from tourists who take offroad vehicles into Qatar’s small and unprotected desert regions. Even in the Al


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Reem reserve in northwest Qatar, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve established in 2007, there are almost no signs, fences, maps, information booths or ranger patrols. Uncontrolled visits from large numbers of tourists in off-road vehicles could do irreversible harm in the reserve. Currently minimal impact education programs in the Gulf, which have been shown to be effective in preserving natural habitats (Buckley and Littlefair 2007, 324-25; Marionand Reid, 2007, 5-27) are virtually non-existent, but could easily be integrated into primary education programs due to the historical importance of desert life to Gulf nationals. Also, from a cultural standpoint, local Muslims may become offended by potential drunken behavior, hooliganism, and immodesty by football fans at the World Cup matches. The police and security forces are planning to mitigate these potential problems by confining the games and ancillary activities to special zones where locals and foreigners will not intermingle.

CONCLUSION

Some of the lessons to be learned from opening extreme and desert environments to tourism activities are that desert environments are highly unique, exotic to the average tourist, and in many cases unspoiled due to sparse human habitation. Thus if marketed properly they present a new resource for the tourist sector. However, negative stereotypes (“wasteland”, “dead”, “boring”, “hostile”, “featureless”, etc.) both locally and outside the country must be overcome. Thus a country must look at its potential resources with the eyes of the outsider, who is generally interested in undertaking tourism an encounter with the unfamiliar and sometimes the unpredictable or even the mildly dangerous (an ‘adventure’). However, the semi-arid regions of southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece, Cyprus and the Mediterranean islands share many of the same features of extreme environments in that they are only exotic to visitors not from those places, thus locals may treat interesting environmental features of their countries as normative, and possibly misuse them (since ‘familiarity breeds contempt’). Water scarcity is a key issue in these regions, and sensible planning is required, since in water scarce areas, desalination plants run by electricity or natural gas or oil are often employed, thus water concerns are intertwined with energy conservation issues. Finally, the lessons learned and case studies from the attempts of local cultures and governments to maintain the cultural sustainability of desert Bedouin tribes, can be applied to indigenous peoples in other countries in the world.

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Alan S. Weber, PhD, Assistant ProfessorWeill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Education CityP.O. Box 24144, Doha, State of QatarPhone: +974 4492 8220Fax: +974 4492 8000E-mail: [email protected]