Roba Shaheen

The historic center of Jeddah is an area rich in both tangible and intangible resources that highlight its significant cultural and traditional heritage. This study introduces a Heritage Tourism Inventory Framework (HTIF) that integrates both types of heritage assets into a comprehensive GIS-based inventory. The framework was developed by synthesizing information from heritage tourism and inventory literature, classifying heritage resources, employing GIS-based spatial documentation methods, and conceptually designing a database capable of recording and presenting both tangible and intangible heritage values within a tourism context. The results identified a comprehensive range of tangible heritage assets, including residential, religious, commercial, institutional, and public heritage resources, along with associated intangible heritage values such as pilgrimage traditions, religious practices, craftsmanship, hospitality, merchant culture, food heritage, and collective memory. These resources were integrated into a standardized inventory database using a place-based approach that spatially links intangible heritage to the locations where cultural practices are performed or maintained. The proposed HTIF expands conventional heritage inventories by integrating tangible and intangible heritage within a unified spatial framework, thereby providing a more comprehensive representation of historic urban landscapes. The framework contributes to heritage tourism research by offering a transferable methodology for heritage documentation while supporting heritage conservation, tourism planning, visitor interpretation, cultural route development, and digital heritage management.

Assessing sustainability in ecotourism destinations remains challenging due to the multidimensional interactions among environmental, socio-cultural, educational, and managerial factors. Existing assessment approaches often focus on isolated sustainability aspects and lack a systematic procedure for identifying, validating, and quantitatively evaluating sustainability indicators. To address this gap, the framework sequentially applies the Ecotourism Opportunity Spectrum (ECOS) model for indicator identification, Delphi for expert validation, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for statistical verification before Sustainability Index development in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. The results collected 25 Ecotourism sustainability indicators grouped into five dimensions: nature, environmental education/protection, sustainability, socio-cultural benefits, and tourist satisfaction from the literature. A two-round Delphi process involving 110 experts achieved more than 80% expert agreement across all indicators, while CFA confirmed the reliability and validity of the proposed framework. A Sustainability Index was subsequently developed, resulting in an overall Sustainability Index score of 52.40 on the normalized 0–100 scale. The findings highlight the strengths of environmental education and protection while identifying opportunities for improvement in sustainability and nature-related dimensions. This study develops and validates a systematic sustainability assessment framework for AlUla, Saudi Arabia, as the empirical study context, providing policymakers, tourism planners, and destination managers with a practical tool for evaluating and monitoring sustainable ecotourism performance. Although developed and tested in AlUla, the methodological process may provide a basis for assessment in other ecotourism destinations, subject to context-specific indicator adaptation and local validation.

This article examines the impact of quality-of-life indicators on residents’ expectations and experiences to measure residents’ satisfaction using the city of Jeddah as a case study. The methodology adopted employed descriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression model, with data collected through a comprehensive questionnaire survey of neighborhood residents. The findings revealed that residents’ satisfaction with the built environment in residential neighborhoods was moderate (58.0%). The results showed eight main significant indicators: gender, age, internet connectivity, solar energy supply, availability of quality education, availability of healthcare services, availability of efficient transportation systems, and security and safety in residential neighborhoods. These indicators should be prioritized by decision-makers when developing policies and improvement plans to enhance the quality of life in Jeddah’s residential neighborhoods. The results emphasize the need for a holistic approach to urban planning and design that prioritizes enhancing public transportation infrastructure and promoting green transportation options. Furthermore, smart systems, solar energy, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things applications should be integrated into housing planning and design. The spatial distribution of residents’ satisfaction across Jeddah’s sub-municipalities identified areas requiring improvements, such as Al-Sharafiyah, Umm Al-Salam, and North Obhur. Conversely, municipal authorities could build on satisfying indicators in areas such as Al-Aziziyah, New Jeddah, and South Jeddah. Spatial autocorrelation analysis (Moran’s I) further confirmed that satisfaction is not randomly distributed across the city, supporting the case for area-specific interventions. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are reported for all odds ratios to communicate estimate precision.

Surface-guided tram systems are increasingly being recognised not only as mobility instruments but also as agents of urban regeneration that reshape spatial and social dynamics. This study evaluates the configurational impact of the Trambesòs tram in Barcelona on accessibility, integration, and urban cohesion within the Levante del Besòs area. A Space Syntax analysis was conducted in UCL DepthmapX for axial map analysis and visual graph analysis within a 500 m radius around each station. Three typologies of intervention (site-specific, articulation axes, and saturation pieces) guided the assessment. This analysis shows that Avinguda Diagonal and Avinguda Meridiana are primary structural corridors, while stations Glòries, Ca l’Aranyó, and Pere IV recorded the highest accessibility and visual openness. The results indicate that targeted interventions have positive impacts on the Space Syntax metrics regardless of their spatial centrality, highlighting the critical role of this diverse intervention typology in shaping the study area’s spatial configuration and influencing a hierarchy of social appropriation and use. It is concluded that the Trambesòs tram and associated urban interventions have jointly enhanced centrality and permeability in key sectors, and specific peripheral enclaves have local functioning. These findings, focused on spatial and morphological patterns, may support future interventions in urban design and mobility planning. Although the analysis centres on spatial configuration, future research may integrate socioeconomic variables to broaden the understanding of regeneration processes.