The Unfenced Desert Towards a strategy for eco ... - Nwrc.gov.sa

Chapter 5.
Public attitudes to wildlife, protected areas, and outdoor
recreation, and patterns of domestic tourism.
Introduction
It would be a mistake to attempt to prepare wildlife protected areas for public visits
without gaining some understanding of public attitudes to wildlife and outdoor
recreation. While it would be inadvisable to allow the whims of the public to dictate
under what circumstances they would visit or utilise protected areas, any tourism
development must take into account what the viewing public wants or needs if it is to be
commercially viable and therefore sustainable in the long-term. I have observed firsthand
the tendency for expatriate consultants to fulfil short-term contracts with the
application of regionally or culturally inappropriate management formulae. Despite
having spent over eight years living and working in Saudi Arabia I am aware that I carry a
lot of Western cultural baggage, and would be uncomfortable with the idea of suggesting
a priori how a given site should be developed for domestic tourism. Some of the
activities that are major attractions in the West, e.g. bird-watching tours, may find little
support in Saudi Arabia…at present; it is equally important not to assume that interests
and activities could not gain support if the opportunities and access where provided.
I identified two target groups from which information about attitudes and
activities relating to leisure and wildlife should be obtained: students, and the male heads
of middle and upper-middle income house holds. By assessing the attitudes of students,
from primary school age up to university level, I hoped to obtain a glimpse of the future.
These people will be Saudi Arabia’s decision-makers and the protected area users in the
coming decades. Eco-tourism within protected areas must attempt to educate the visiting
public, and in order to formulate appropriate public awareness and education
programmes it’s necessary to try to understand what people do, why do they do it, and
what do they know or do not know about the animals or areas they would come to see.
The second target group forms that sector of Saudi society which currently
makes decisions about where and how families take holidays within the Kingdom. This is
not to say that women do not have considerable decision-making authority within Saudi
households; their exclusion from this questionnaire is more reflection of greater ease of
access to the male members of society. Lower income groups, such as nomadic or seminomadic
herdsmen, are becoming a smaller segment of society and could be expected
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