US (controlling) aid

We started this day with a visit to the USAID. This American organization helps Jordan with improving their tourism sector. They help for example with renovating historical sites and by opening visitor centres. But why should the USA put money and effort in Jordan, you are probably wondering right now.  The answer according to our speaker was: “we do this because we are American and we are nice”. I couldn’t believe what I heard because that, to me, was not the real reason. The USA wants to have influences in Jordan because it is a westernized country in the Middle East. Jordan’s economy depends on tourism and therefore the USA and other countries, including the Netherlands, put money into Jordan’s tourism industry, they commodify it. I don’t know if this is good for Jordan because the government is now depending on financial support from the outside, but they need their money and help to develop tourism.
Commodification refers to using a place’s culture and sites to make a large enough profit to support part of the area’s economy.  Different views into consideration show that this concept has positive and negative consequences for both tourists and locals. Taylor for example thinks that commodification destroys the local culture and its authenticity, leading to so-called ‘endangered cultures’.¹ Cole, on the other hand, argued that it can actually help and empower the locals.²  The issue with commodification and also a lot of other concepts is to find the balance in order to benefit both locals and tourists. USaid tries to do this by a lot of talks with locals.
After our visit to the USAID, we went to Um Ar-Rassas, Madaba and Mount Nebo. Especially in Um Ar-Rassas the visitor centre financed by the USAID felt, to me, as a extra service to tourists and it definitely does not destroy the authenticity. So here they found a good balance!

¹ Taylor, JP. (2001) Authenticity and Sincerity in Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research. 28(1), 7-26.
² Cole, S. (2007) Beyond authenticity and commodification. Annals of Tourism Research 34(4), 943-960.

Building where USaid is located, for safety reasons it looks from outside like a car dealer

Um Ar-Rassas

Arabic barbie for sale in Madaba

Greek orthodox church in Madaba

Mount Nebo, the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land

View from Mount Nebo