jordan: the switzerland of the middle east

my term paper for my international marketing class this semester is a "nation branding audit" where we are asked to analyze a country's efforts to market itself to the rest of the world. as i am focusing my research on jordan, i spoke to a member of jordan's national tourism board today to get some thoughts on what jordan has done in the past to promote itself, and how the nation is tailoring its efforts amidst the arab spring, the perception that the middle east is violent, and the resulting decilne in visitors.

jordan has so much history, so many exciting things to see and to do, and so much culture to share. and the violence going on wall street today trumps any protesting going on in jordan. but once people get it in their heads that a place is unsafe, it's difficult for any marketing effort to change their perceptions. well, here are mine from my visit (the one where tim joined me!) in june 2010:

the souk in amman

amman skyline at dusk

the treasury at petra- so many versions of this picture, but still amazing.

snorkeling in the red sea, aqaba

sunset on the dead sea

swimmin' in october

school has been pretty busy this semester. the weekdays are long--and both tim and i are usually working from 8am to late in the evening. saturdays have been the only day in the week for no work at all. a few weekends ago, my parents came to town, and we did a long bike ride from ipswich to crane's beach--i found the route in a nationwide biking magazine, so figured it had to be good. the water was chilly-but the beach was empty, and it was fun to be laughed at by the other people there. we ended our day with a trip to the lobster pool in rockport!