Amman – The library of the Jordan Applied University (JAU) received some 250 books from USAID last week, which are specialized in subjects for tour guides. The books were purchased through a grant from the USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project, which is supporting the enhancement of training and education in hospitality and tourism-related fields. The books will be accessible to current and prospective tour guides, enabling them to access a wealth of valuable information about topics such as communication and customer skills as well as extensive material on Jordan’s history, archaeology and culture.

“The new book collection is a valuable addition to the university’s library and will enable tour guides and students in the field to explore specific areas of tour guiding and deepen their knowledge of the subject,” said Dr. Muhsen Makhamreh, Dean of JAU.

“The development of Jordan’s tourism education is vital to meeting the growing market demands and it is necessary to have specialized programs and learning facilities as well as general tourism and hospitality,” said Mr. Jay Knott, USAID Jordan Mission Director. “This contribution to the library of JAU is a step in that direction, with a collection that offers Jordanian tour guides information that is beneficial and practical.”

JAU is a unit of the Jordan Hospitality and Tourism Education Company (JHTEC), which also comprises the Jordan Hotel School and Century Park Training Hotel. Over the past six months the USAID Tourism Project has awarded two grants to JHTEC, totaling over $100,000, to train Jordanian tour guides at the JAU and enhance their skills in order to improve the tourist visitor experience. These two grants supported 73 tour guides specialized in a range of languages, including Russian, Greek, French, Spanish, Bosnian, Hungarian, Chinese and Korean. The grants also enabled training in specialized topics such as guiding techniques, principles of tourism and tourism in Jordan, classical period, Byzantines ages, modern history of Jordan, Islamic ages, eco tourism, infield training and selected topics on Jordanian society.

The tour guiding library collection will help guides strengthen their existing knowledge and as well as expanding it. The books also provide theoretical references on subjects ranging from hospitality and basic guiding to specialized topics such as trekking, canyoning and heritage and biblical tourism in Jordan. In addition, the collection addresses needed subjects such as communicating across cultures, marketing, planning and leisure management.