Tourism in the Middle East

Rami Daher previously taught architecture at Jordan University of Science & Technology and is currently teaching at the American University of Beirut (AUB); and practises architecture and heritage management through a private consultancy: TURATH, in Amman, Jordan. Daher is interested in research related to politics and dynamics of place and heritage conservation, tourism, and urban regeneration. Daher is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Tourism and Cultural Change at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Daher has been awarded several research grants such as the Social Science Research Council and Fulbright. Daher has worked as a consultant for several heritage management and urban regeneration projects throughout Jordan and abroad.

This collection is the first really penetrating analysis of tourism in the contemporary Middle East. It covers a variety of appropriate topics, including investment, post-colonialism, neo-colonialism, gentrification, stratification, exploitation, representation, and virtual tourism, in chapters written by a range of Middle Eastern, European and American authorities. However, it is the leadership and guidance of the editor Rami Daher, a well-known Jordanian architect, academic and hands on critical public intellectual that gives the book its thrust. Daher does not hold back in his critical analyses of international and national power relations in Middle Eastern tourism developments, strongly motivated by his respect of the creativity of all classes and historical periods, whether they are popular tourism targets or not, all underpinned by his own love for the people of Jordan and Palestine. This is absolutely the most important book on tourism and the Middle East ever written to date.

• Preface Acknowledgement 1. Reconceptualizing Tourism in the Middle East: Place, Heritage, Mobility & Competitiveness - Rami Farouk Daher 2. A Historiography of Tourism in Cairo: A Spatial Perspective - Noha Nasser 3. From One Globalization to Another: In Search for the Seeds of Modern Tourism in the Levant, A Western Perspective - Xavier Guillot 4. Digital Spatial Representations: New Communication Processes & 'Middle Eastern' UNESCO World Heritage Sites Online - Scott McLeod 5. Visitors, Visions and Veils: The Portrayal of the Arab World in Tourism Advertising - Saba Al Mahadin and Peter Burns 6. The 'Islamic' City and Tourism: Managing Conservation and Tourism in Traditional Neighbourhoods - Aylin Orbasli 7. Development of Community Based Tourism in Oman: Challenges and Opportunities - Birgit Mershen 8. From Hajj to Hedonism? Paradoxes of Developing Tourism in Saudi Arabia - Peter Burns 9. Touristic Development in Sinai, Egypt: Bedouin, Visitors, and Government Interaction - David Homa 10. Tourism, Heritage, and Urban Transformations in Jordan & Lebanon: Emerging Actors & Global-Local Juxtapositions - Rami Farouk Daher 11. Tourism and Power Relations in Jordan: Contested Discourses and Semiotic Shifts - Salam Al Mahadin