Zeitschrift für Tourismusforschung und Gastgewerbe

Community Perspectives to Tourism Impacts in Petra

Mukhles Al-Ababneh

Community Perspectives to Tourism Impacts in Petra

The tourism industry is one of the most important industries of the Jordanian economy. It generates in Jordan billions of dollars in revenues and thousands of jobs yearly. The study aims to investigate tourism impacts on society in Petra from three perspectives: cultural, social and economic as perceived by residents. Petra is an important destination in Jordan for international tourists. This study used a quantitative research by using a self-administered survey applied to convenience samples of local residents in Petra in 2015. A number of 400 questionnaires were distributed to local residents in Petra, and only 342 questionnaires were returned and valid for analysing data. Data were analysed with the SPSS software version 21 based on descriptive statistics. The main results found that local residents have strongly positive perspectives to tourism impacts (cultural, social and economic). The comparison of the mean scores of these impacts across residents that live in Petra reveals that the most valued impacts was economic, then cultural and finally social.