Desert Tourism as a Substitute for Pastoralism? Tuareg in Algeria and Bedouin in Jordan

Abstract

This article tackles a series of related questions that are not being asked in plans for the socioeconomic development of mobile pastoralists in arid areas of North Africa and the Middle East, or to which answers are taken for granted, or that are dealt with only from a very localized socioeconomic perspective. The view supported here is that the livelihoods of nomadic, mobile and settled populations in arid areas are affected by larger economic, political and geopolitical factors, and that a diachronic approach needs to be taken to account for the dynamic process of social change that these populations undergo. Based on an appraisal and comparison of the preexisting involvement of Tuareg in the Algerian Great South and of Bedouin in southern Jordan with international tourism, the following questions are asked: How did the current socioeconomic organization of tourism in these areas come about? What has been, and what is currently the impact of development interventions on local private initiatives in the field of international tourism? What does the history of Tuareg and Bedouin's involvement with international tourism tell us about the local and wider conditions under which tourism-related activities benefits these communities?