Responsible Tourism

`Responsible Tourism` is a growing movement amongst tourism providers concerned about the impact of the tourism industry on the natural and cultural environments – and the local people – of your host country.

While every business must make a profit in order to survive, the staff at JIT are passionately committed to hosting you – a unique person – in Jordan– a unique country with its own unique array of cultures and landscapes.  You cannot be `packaged` -- we cannot `package` Jordan .  JIT wants to host you in an encounter with Jordan that is as real as you are.

We want Jordanians to experience you as a person – not merely a tourist unit. 

We want you to experience Jordan not as a product, but as a culture, a people, and environment.

Responsible Tourism is an approach that tries to sustain the environment which attracted you to Jordan in the first place, and to make the interaction between the tourist and the local population as positive as possible.  JIT is trying to train our team, our Jordanian people and our guests to look after our natural and cultural world, to protect it and nurture it.

Here are some tangible ways JIT promotes Responsible Tourism:

> JIT employs local people wherever possible – and by local we mean people from the very village or region where you are staying – to sustain the local economy.

> Wherever you go with JIT staff, we know the service providers personally and we know the local populations.  As far as possible we avoid using corporate providers: JIT is working to build locally appropriate tourism that helps local people and their families, and working to build their understanding of these dynamics. 

> JIT tries to promote appropriate interaction with local residents, increasing awareness by increasing communication.  We at JIT feel that casual, personal encounters between people bring our worlds closer together in thought, feeling and appreciation for one another.  Your communication with local residents helps to break down media myths and stereotypes, and it offers our kids a chance to practice their English!

> By not `packaging` Jordan , we offer you almost endless flexibility – if something in our world captures your interest, we want you to pursue it.  We don’t want to shape your experience – we want to help you to follow your enthusiasm by giving you as much honest and accurate information as we can. 

> JIT wants to show you the real Jordan – real life, real culture, real people.  Not a sanitized portrait of the past – we want you to see the past and the present as they exist here and now.  We want you to see our desert camps, our Bedouin world -- not the `TV-oriental`, not a sham `camp` served by foreign laborers and imported belly-dancers dressed up in imaginary `Bedouin` gear that has nothing to do with us.

> We want you to see Islam being practiced in its own world – in everyday ways by everyday people, in mosques and in homes.  You can watch from afar or come as close as you want: if you want to see a prayer service, we will host you.  If women travelers want to talk to or pray with Muslim women, we will arrange a woman translator for you.  Just as we want to break down the harmful stereotypes associated with tourists, we want to do the same with our real, welcoming, everyday Muslim friends and families.

This is JIT`s Credo of Responsibility to our Guests:

> We will give our guests the most accurate information available;

> We will give our honest advice if asked for it;

> We will design itineraries and programs that suit the needs and interests of each of our guests as individuals, we will do our best to communicate with you consistently to be sure that your visit is meeting your expectations if at all possible;

> We will take every measure to ensure the safety and security of our guests, and make every effort to build mutual respect and caring as human beings;

> We will welcome you in our homes to shorten the distance between peoples of the world;

> We will show you as far as possible what we feel is the real Jordan ;

> We will intercede and advise if merchants or service providers attempt to overcharge for goods or services;

> We will do our very best to help you understand our culture, in hopes of building mutual respect amongst all cultures;

> We will do our very best to share our awareness of our natural environment and to help you help us to protect and nurture it.

We hope and pray that you will love Jordan as much as we do.