The Role of Tourism Trails in the Socioconomic Development in Ajloun

Abstract

Tourism has become a main pillar in the development, employment, and hard currency earnings for tourist destinations. Ajloun is regarded as one of the core tourist and ecologi- cal attractions in Jordan through its historical, cultural, religious, aesthetic, and scientific significances. It attracts more tourist year after a year. The study aims at comprehending the importance of tourism in general and tourism trails in particular in the socio-economic development of the area, and learning how local communities perceive the socio-econom- ic impacts of tourism trails in an attempt to enhance its role the sustainable development of the governorate. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach. A questionnaire was developed and administered among a sample of 291 individuals in four villages in Ajloun. The study concluded that local people positively evaluate the socio-economic impacts of tourism trails, and no differences of statistical significance were found between both the social and economic impacts of tourism on one hand, and the demographic vari- ables of the study sample on the other hand. It recommended the necessity of developing and marketing different tourism trails connecting the different villages in Ajloun, involv- ing local people in their various development and marketing stages, enhancing the role of public institutions and travel firms, effective coordination among different stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable development in the area, and offering investment and employ- ment proprieties for local people.