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

opportunity to NCWCD for the development of limited impact, high quality eco-tourism
development in selected protected areas. Special interest international tourists groups,
typically retired, wealthy Americans and Europeans, could potentially generate significant
revenue but with minimal impact.
The unique attractions of sites such as the `Uruq Bani Ma’arid protected area were
highlighted as an example of potentially appropriate areas for development. It was
suggested that camel treks in UBM would be “the quintessential desert experience”. The
group agreed that NCWCD could become a sponsor of groups for such visits, but that
the NCWCD would perhaps need to work with established tour operators, and that
permission would need to be obtained for the Commission to sponsor special interest
groups.
The group was advised that government regulations would provide permission for
retired people only to enter as international tourists. It was agreed that this would be a
desirable target market, being people with time, money and interest.
It was further suggested that an eco-tourism approach could also be used to develop new
protected areas.
Benefiting local communities
A key component of any eco-tourism venture was the development of mechanism to
involve and benefit local communities. The group discussed the problem of “leakage”,
i.e. the loss of tourist revenue to sectors outside the focus of operations. It was
considered that whereas wealthy tourist visitors would have greater spending power, they
would also demand greater facility development, thus another important sector would be
domestic, lower-income tourists.
There followed a discussion on how best to ensure that locals would benefit from
tourism. Dr Robinson presented southern African examples, Zimbawe’s CAMPFIRE
programme, and South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Natal Parks. The keys to the
success of these schemes has been the incorporation of local community needs from the
beginning, regulated and preferential access by locals to protected areas, and the
restriction of mass-tourism to defined areas.
The group agreed that it was important to build on existing patterns of tourist
movements and preferences, and to identify nodes containing a cluster of potential
attractions, e.g. Medain Saleh and Harrat Uwayridh; Dowmat al Jandal and Harrat al-
Harrah; Najran and the Asir.
There followed a general discussion on the use of volunteers and temporary workers, e.g.
teachers, university students and scout groups, to be trained and used seasonally as tour
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