Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

Indigenous tourism is one of the fastest growing sections of the tourism industry in the most countries of the world nowadays and it can if done well, provide opportunities to promote greater cultural understanding while increasing indigenous peoples capacity and economy (Alexis C., Nelson H.,2018). As Egypt is not an exception, there are various tourism initiatives in indigenous areas throughout the country, mainly in the Nubia region, which located in southern Egypt, where most of Egypt’s indigenous Nubians are concentrated. Considering tourism can lead to both positive and negative consequences the objective of this work is to analyze the socio-cultural, and economic impacts of Indigenous tourism on the Indigenous Nubian communities as a case study because there are few empirical studies in Egypt on this theme. Nubians are a distinct ethnic group descended from one of Africa’s earliest and most powerful ancient civilizations as Nubian civilization dates in this area back to around 8200 B.C (Mahgoub,1990). This study is an exploratory descriptive research. Qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection were applied in conducting this study. Semi-structured interviews, Focus groups, and the observations are the main Preliminary data collection techniques used in this study. while the Secondary Data were sourced from articles, statistics, dissertations, and websites. The research concludes that Indigenous tourism can have positive impacts on these communities such as saving their identity and to foster their economic development. However, it can also have negative impacts on them, that will be discussed further in this poster with the recommendations.