Tourism in the Middle East ― Continuity, Change, And Transformation

This edited volume on tourism in the Middle East embodies a multi-discursive approach to the study of tourism in the region offering not only different perspectives but qualifying local knowledge and realities. The book re-examines the discourse of tourism within geopolitical contemporary regional realities. The book re-conceptualizes tourism as a discourse linked to heritage and identity construction, national and global economies, and development of local communities. Alternatively, a new discursive approach to the understanding of tourism emerges out of invigorating and stimulating latent regional realities and the social histories of various towns, villages, and cultural landscapes within the contested and politically-charged region of the Middle East. The book investigates issues of national identity, authenticity, definition of heritage, representation of cultures and regions, community & tourism development, urban tourism, heritage conservation & tourism, and tourism related investments through a new vision for the region that transcends current geopolitics or national and formal historiographies.

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.