The Economic and Environmental Effects of Using Electrical Cars Instead of Animals for the Purposes of Tourism in the Archeological City of Petra in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan During (2021-2022)

The Nabatean Arab constructed the archeological rose-red city of Petra. The touristic sector represents about (18%) of the national product revenues, and Petra accounted for (82%) of these revenues. The ministry of tourism regularly developed the touristic sites, and the city of Petra had the highest portion of that. Recently, the environment-friendly electric cars were introduced as a substitute for animals to transporting tourists inside the city for several reasons, including the animals' wastes and bad smell as well as employing archaeological caves as stables, the continuous carving of historical surfaces, in addition to the continuous appeal by those calling for animals rights for not using or humiliating those animals and providing additional services to children, elderly people and those with special needs.
There has been increased conflict between stakeholders and decision-makers, where the owners of those animals suggested that such a substitute will adversely affect their living. Therefore, the current study aimed to address the economic and environmental effect of this substitution. In order to answer the study questions, the researcher used the analytical descriptive approach in order to reach the targeted results. The results revealed that there is a positive economic impact on those working in transporting tourists using animals due to converting to use electric cars. The results revealed that there is an improvement in the environmental outcomes, but it didn't achieve the targeted objective.
The results showed that decision makers should make decisions, including the necessity of persuading the local community with the substitution process, since it will be positively and directly reflected on the economic and environmental domains.