Aid to Artisans is conducting a marketing training focusing on the tourist and eco markets Jordan. ATA’s Training Director and two market expert consultants are traveling to Ajloun, Salt, Wadi Rum and Wadi Moussa from July 19 to August 1 to provide classroom training and onsite consulting with artisans and retailers in their workshops and retail stores. While the overall goal of the training is to teach Jordanians in the handcraft sector specific techniques and tips on how to increase their sales, they will also learn about the size and scope of the market, consumer and product trends, how to design for a target market and how to cost and price their products.
The following is an article that ran today in the local newspaper, The Jordan Times about ATA’s training. (direct link to article here)
Ajloun Artisans Prepare for Tourists
By Taylor Luck
AJLOUN – Ajloun residents believe that with a little help their governorate has a lot to offer visitors.
The area, which was recently announced by His Majesty King Abdullah as a Special Development Zone projected to house a tourism city with 900 hotel rooms, restaurants and other entertainment facilities, needs assistance in promoting its beautiful natural scenery, history, hospitality and natural herbs and remedies.
Maisoon Zaidar said her Amana Society for the Protection of Women and Children, which supports 240 women in Anjara and the greater Ajloun area, is one of dozens of cooperatives that make handicrafts and homemade goods from the forests of Ajloun to support charitable activities.
The organisation, however, can no longer afford to place labels on its products to promote the group’s cause and does not even have transportation, forcing Zaidar to personally drive the women from Anjara to Amman and elsewhere in hopes of selling their goods.
“We have the greatest natural herbs and forests in the world. But right now we are really trying to build something out of nothing,” she said.
The Um Al Lulu Cooperative, which was given support and financial feasibility studies by the Ministry of Planning’s IRADA initiative, makes products out of recycled wood and clothes, in addition to intricate fabrics woven by local women in their homes.
Um Al Lulu Director Sumaya Momani, 30, said that over the past year-and-a-half, her organisation has had success selling “green” products from the Sakhra area of Ajloun to provide income for local families.
During the summers, the cooperative is allowed to set up a stall at Ajloun Castle on Fridays and Saturdays, and their presence at various festivals and bazaars brings, in enough income to support their activities.
But without a permanent location and proper marketing skills, the women’s cooperative has yet to reach its potential or attract foreign tourists.
“We want to expand our operations and sell to the entire Kingdom. We have so much to give,” Momani said.
Reema Hamzat, director of the Orjan Soap House, said that despite attracting foreign visitors since it was established over a year ago, the centre, and Ajloun handicraft initiatives as a whole, still face difficulties reaching the local market.
“We need marketing and support to reach the Jordanian market,” Hamzat noted.
Ajloun Governor Wanas Harahsheh noted that the governorate needs assistance in attracting investment, particularly in the tourism sector, expressing hope that the area emulates the success of the Mosaic City of Madaba by becoming an emerging destination for citizens and tourists alike.
Harahsheh and Ajloun artisans gathered on Sunday for the first in a series of three-day workshops being held across the Kingdom by Aid to Artisans (ATA) and the USAID-Jordan Tourism Development Project to enable artisans to market their products and take advantage of the country’s growing tourism sector.
According to ATA, visitors are willing to spend 20 per cent more on eco-friendly or green products, giving Ajloun residents a unique advantage in the Kingdom’s handicrafts market.
The organisation said it is important for Ajloun artisans to focus on product development, incorporating their cultural heritage into their designs in order to entice visitors and promote their eco-friendly products.
ATA training director Moira Deasy said artisans all too often stick with designs that they find appealing, rather than considering the tastes and desires of visitors.
“That is often the death knell. Visitors want to bring something home that they can hold and always keep to remember their trip to Jordan. Producers have to identify what type of product that would be,” she said, noting that the area has “huge potential”.
The workshops are a part of a series of efforts by tourism authorities to promote local development through supporting handicrafts, a sector officials said is “unorganised”.
USAID-JTDP is currently working with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Jordan Handicraft Producers Association, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, the Noor Al Hussein Foundation and the Jordan River Foundation to develop a national strategy for handicraft production and marketing.
Officials are expected to complete a first draft of the strategy, which would entail branding and certification of artisans and their handmade goods, by the end of the month.
“We want to draw on the colours, history and local heritage of each area,” USAID-JTDP Component Leader Joseph Ruddy told The Jordan Times, noting that the guidelines will promote unique packaging and certify that products are indeed “made in Jordan”.
The strategy also aims to encourage artisans to utilise the unique natural character of each region, such as the herbs and oils of Ajloun, the mosaics of Madaba, the rugged terrain and stones of Wadi Rum, and the pottery of Petra.
“Not many people know this, but the pottery work of Petra is world-renowned, dating back to the Nabataeans and Edomites. Wadi Musa is home to master potters of this region, using unique clay, but visitors never see it,” he said.
Officials are also working to establish a National Training Centre for Handicrafts at the Vocational Training Corporation facility in Salt to aid artisans in producing and marketing items.
Meanwhile, Ajloun artisans expressed hope that they can take the lead by producing items that are “a part of Jordan”.
“Anyone can come to Ajloun, but we want them to take a piece of Ajloun with them,” Zaidar said.
