Weather of Arabia - Thanks to the presence of cable cars, or what are known as “suspension locomotives”, along with the availability of traditional food and fresh mountain air, decision makers and residents of the city of Ajloun in northern Jordan are looking forward to enhancing the publicity of their region as a major destination for green tourism in the country. They aim to stimulate the local economy by increasing the number of visitors to the new cable car station in the Ajloun Mountains, boosting local financial revenues.
However, the Ajloun Mountains face special challenges as a result of climate change, such as landslides and fires that can occur due to rising temperatures. The important question is : Will the new cable car project be compatible with the natural surroundings and economically efficient at the same time?
The Jordanian government considers the cable car station project in Ajloun a new step towards sustainable tourism, as the government aspires for this station to be “a comprehensive tourist destination in the country in record time.”
Preliminary tourism studies in Jordan indicate the possibility of an increase in the number of ecotourism visitors in the Ajloun Mountains region during the next five years, as a result of sustainable development projects such as the cable car station.
The great interest in ecotourism in Jordan is clearly evident, as a result of increasing pressures to preserve and develop the natural environment. The first environmental environment in Jordan was established in 1993 in the Dana Nature Reserve in the south of the country.
The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan currently manages ten nature reserves, including the Ajloun Reserve , through which the cable car station project area indirectly passes.
It is noteworthy that Jordan was one of the countries that welcomed the declaration of the International Year of Ecotourism in 2002, with the aim of discussing and developing ecotourism practices to enhance local economic development and protect the environment.
Engineer Arwa Al-Hayari, Director General of Development Zones in Jordan and responsible for the cable car station project, says: “The cable car project is a development tourism initiative aimed at promoting and encouraging integrated tourism projects in Ajloun Governorate .”
She adds that the goal of this project is to develop eco-tourism projects that preserve the natural environment and enhance its unique habitats in the Ajloun forests , while adhering to the best international standards in this field.
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Local authorities in Jordan encourage residents and tourists to engage in hiking and cycling during their visit to the Ajloun Mountains, and look forward to making electric bikes and cable cars part of the sustainable environmental and economic solution in the region.
The cable cars are very popular among tourists and residents in the city of Ajloun , and are considered environmentally friendly, as the cable cars themselves do not have motors and are lifted by an electric crane.
“The cable car project is a low-emission environmental project built on ecosystem services, as the Ajloun forests are considered the main feature of eco-tourism,” says Omar Al-Shushan, head of the Federation of Environmental Associations in Jordan.
Al-Shoushan adds that the cable car route complies with the conditions of Environmental Protection Law No. 6 of 2017, and does not affect wildlife in the natural reserve, and studies have been carried out to avoid any potential environmental damage.
Some environmental experts in Jordan believe that the cable car route does not pass directly through the nature reserve, which reduces human activity and allows tourists to enjoy the natural scenery without polluting the forests with plastic waste as a result of “random hiking.”
Some experts point out that the Ajloun cable car project enhances the importance of forests as a source of economic income and job opportunities, and is a community protection factor for forests. The project also indirectly contributes to protecting forests by preserving the natural pattern and increasing the number of tourists to enjoy the beauty of the area.
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The Jordanian Group for Free Zones and Development Zones confirmed that receiving visitors to the Ajloun cable car will stop during the first nine days of the holy month of Ramadan.
In a statement, the group attributed: The reason for the stoppage is due to the completion of scheduled periodic maintenance work, noting that the cable car will resume receiving visitors on the tenth of Ramadan until the end of the holy month, daily from ten in the morning until four-thirty in the evening, except for Tuesday of each week.
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