From heritage to hyper-reality? Tourism destination development in the Middle East between Petra and the Palm

摘要

Tourism destination development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been remarkably strong in the last few years, but different types of destinations vary in terms of degree of success. While classical European-centred heritage tourism destinations, such as the Nile valley in Egypt and Petra in Jordan, have been stagnating, other destinations, such as Egypt's coastal resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and the emirate of Dubai, are booming. The expansion in the latter destinations has been enhanced by the construction of new development projects such as El Gouna, Ibn Battuta Mall, Burj Al Arab, and The Palm Islands. Drawing on the work of Eco and Baudrillard, this article interprets these new tourism spaces as 'hyperrealities'. By developing a theoretically informed, postmodern interpretation of the symbolic value and the global competition advantages of these hyper-real places, the article presents a new perspective on the transformation of tourism spaces in the Arab world. The resulting explanation of the success of hyper-real destinations provides the suggestion that the hyper-realisation of tourism spaces will be a major model of future destination development in the MENA.