Unveiling Tourism in Jordan (Feelings, Affect, Emotion)

The view of Jerash from the Colonnade Street

One of the destinations that we visited is Jerash. Jerash is a city which is famous for its Roman archaeological ruins; a place which is often called as "the Pompeii of the Middle East". Although Jerash is fascinating, to me the most interesting part of the visit is the encounter with the site, the discussions and the way the place makes us feel. “Feelings” cannot be described as feeling per se; rather, it consists of different components, including feelings, affect and emotions (Buda, 2014). Feeling is described as bodily sensation or perception of haptics, as explained by Buda (2014). While emotions are the form of feeling that can be labeled, affect refers to a kind of experience which is difficult to put in words. 

Our first concern was revealed when we were informed about the condition of tourism in Jordan. The tour guide explained that the figures and statistics about tourism in Jordan on the internet is biased, as the Jordanian government also take refugees into account when they do the calculation. It means that, contrary to the available information, tourism in Jordan is, in fact, in a critical condition. Moreover, the guide also mentioned that the government is not cooperating well with the other tourism stakeholders, especially the tour guides. We are even told that the guides will quit their jobs if there is no further support from the government. All these facts has opened our eyes; not only that we felt concerned about the matter, we also want to contribute in finding the solutions to the problem. It shows that feelings and emotions have major role in shaping the tourism industry. The tour guides that are dissatisfied by how the government treat them will not bring any improvement to the situation. In my opinion, positive relations between the tour guides and the government, but also between the tourists and the tour guides need to be maintained in order to gain trust, which consequently will bring more tourists into the country.

 The north gate

 Our tour guide, Omar in one of the sites

 The Theater

The Colonnade Street