Visit our town: Linking community health to rural tourism development.

摘要

This thesis examines the relationship between rural tourism development and the indicators of community health. Tourism development is a tool used by rural communities to cope with the challenges and pressures of today's society. Tourism development can provide economic benefits for rural communities, but there are substantial repercussions for the natural environment, social systems and the overall health and well being of the rural community. Social and environmental concerns in conjunction with the economic impacts need to be considered during the planning process of tourism development to ensure that the various impacts of tourism are appropriately monitored and that negative implications are minimized whenever possible.; Using the community of Jordan as a case study location, the indicators of community health were presented to determine which community health indicators would be appropriate to use for monitoring and guiding tourism development. The community health indicators were selected as core indicators by the participants, establishing that these indicators can be used to guide and/or monitor tourism development. Rural tourism communities, such as Jordan, are open to a holistic planning approach for tourism development. Community health provides that holistic approach and helps the community monitor the entire tourism system.