Tourism enterprises along Salt Heritage Trail to be supported through USAID grant
Work on developing the Salt Heritage Trail continues, and the USAID Jordan Tourism Development Project recently provided a grant to the Salt Development Corporation (Emaar) to support enterprise development and create good jobs along the proposed trail. This initiative seeks to enhance tourism products and services along the Salt trail to help attract visitors and increase tourist spending. The grant, which will be managed by the Salt Development Corporation, will be used to support 14 small and medium enterprises run by the local community in Salt and is expected to create at least 20 new jobs. The USAID grant was officially awarded last month at a ceremony held in Salt, witnessed by H.E. Dr. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, and a USAID representative.
H.E. Dr. Abu Ghazaleh expressed support for this initiative, saying, "This is a significant step towards developing the Salt trail and getting the community directly involved in tourism, as well as encouraging new and better businesses and services. The community in Salt can make a valuable contribution to the visitor experience here, as well as improving their living standards through tourism."
"This project is in line with our vision to develop the city of Salt," said H.E. Mr. Marwan Al- Hamoud, Chairman of Emaar Board of Directors, saying that the aims of the Salt Development Corporation include, “Providing and enhancing basic public services in the city and setting up beneficial projects in various areas, such as tourism; therefore this project fulfills one of those aims."
"Salt is a fascinating city that has a rich history and offers great insight into the modern history of Jordan. The Salt Heritage Trail is a great way to create good jobs serving the ever increasing number of tourists visiting Salt and enjoying what it has to offer," said Ms. Amy Tohill-Stull, USAID Acting Deputy Mission Director.
Following the first grant to the Salt Development Corporation that helped build the capacity of the corporation to manage and implement the enterprise program, this new grant will support 14 entrepreneurs to upgrade or establish tourism-related businesses along the Salt tourism trail. As well as the financial assistance, business owners will receive technical support through a training series that will cover hospitality skills, handcraft development, events management and business administration.
As a result of supporting tourism businesses along the Salt Heritage Trail, around 20 job opportunities will be created for locals, who will also have the opportunity of benefitting from tourism by providing services for tourists. This initiative is part of a national effort lead by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to develop a seven-kilometer Salt Heritage Trail which passes by heritage buildings, museums, traditional shops, and others.
Further efforts to tap into Salt’s tourism potential to benefit the city’s residents are being implemented to support the tourism trail. The USAID tourism project is working closely with Nashmiyat Al Balqa, a women’s cooperative that produces appliqué products inspired by the culture and history of Salt, to help the women improve designs, packaging and marketing in order to reach the tourist market. In addition, the USAID project is helping upgrade the handicraft vocational training center (VTC) in Salt to be a national center for handicraft design and production training with a new curriculum and facilities to train students in weaving, ceramics and embroidery. The VTC center for tourism and hospitality was also upgraded as part of wider efforts by the VTC, Ministry of Labour and the USAID Jordan Tourism Development Project to encourage students to take up hospitality and to improve the skills and capacities of graduates and align their training with market needs. The Salt center contains state-of-the-art training facilities with 23 hotel-standard bedrooms and the center graduates around 150 students each year.
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