The role of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in archaeological tourism assessment and development in Najran, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

To date, GIS has been rarely used as a planning tool to support archaeological tourism, despite the widespread archaeological application of GIS more generally. Archaeological tourism can be defined as travel to experience places, activities and artefacts that authentically present stories and peoples of the past. This study examines the role of GIS in archaeological heritage tourism and planning using, as a case study, Najran region in Saudi Arabia. As well as being an important historic trading hub, Najran includes significant archaeological sites, therefore it has the potential to be an alternative for tourists who might be looking at Yemen as a tourist destination especially when Saudi Arabia starts issuing tourist visas.

As an initial step, governmental archaeological records were combined with information from a literature review and fieldwork to develop a geospatial archaeological heritage database for Najran. Simultaneously, data on tourism accommodation and facilities were collated through a mixture of field surveys, Internet sources such as OpenStreetMap, and local tourism-promotion materials. Sieve analysis of the resulting spatial databases suggest that there are six archaeological tourist sites with high potential based on archaeology, accessibility and site characteristics. With the city of Najran dominating the provision of tourism accommodation and facilities, the most appropriate role for GIS is likely to be in combining knowledge of the spatial distribution of archaeological sites with tourism and amenities. The next step was to conduct a consumer survey to evaluate selected archaeological tourist sites, where the results indicate that those sites located outdoors are more likely to be visited in the future. The final step was to characterise the landscapes around the potential archaeological tourist sites in the Najran region, e.g. mountains, vegetation, wadis etc.

This thesis provides a GIS-based management tool for the development of tourism in Najran Province in line with the rapidly developing national tourism policy.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Antony Brown: orcid.org/0000-0002-1990-4654

ORCID for James Wright: orcid.org/0000-0002-8842-2181

Catalogue record

Export record