abstract: Ecotourism is defined as a traveling distance where tourist interact with environment and enjoy nature. It is a market segment in the tourism sector that can provide several benefits if managed properly. Although ecotourism can provide economic benefits for Saudi Arabia, there is not enough attention granted to ecotourism facilities and services in desert sites. The current study attempts to fill this gap by aiming to explore families’ perceptions of environmental desert settings that support their ecotourism needs and to identify opportunities to develop services, expand activities areas, and infrastructures. Ultimately, this study addresses families’ ecotourism needs for the promotion of sustainable desert ecotourism development that is inclusive to most Saudi tourists. This study uses qualitative research methods, including observations, surveys and interviews of families who have visited Saudi Arabian deserts between December 2019 and March 2020. The findings are analyzed and translated into a set of design guidelines for existing and for new sustainable ecotourist sites within Saudi Arabian desert environments. The implications of this study are two-fold: to (1) educate the design industry to take into account ecotourism visitors’ perceptions of environmental settings and infrastructures needs without compromising its natural resources; and (2) highlight the value of sustainable ecotourism so that decision makers take an action to ensure stability of the growing market demand of desert tourism. This study concludes with a discussion of findings reached that can promote more sustainable ecotourism experiences at Saudi Arabian desert sites. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Design 2020

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The main aim of this study was to investigate current search behaviour among Saudi consumers of travel services, to establish their attitudes towards, and adoption of online search and booking processes. It also aimed to explore current experiences within travel agencies of the adoption of online booking systems in the Saudi Arabian market. The study relied on a multi-method research design, with a focus on using both qualitative and quantitative data across three sequentially organised phases of data collection. Phase one centred on in-depth interviews with Saudi travel agents; phase two adopted a combined approach, using observation and semi-structured interviews, with a focus on getting a comprehensive insight into Saudi consumer search behaviour. In phase three, the researcher undertook a survey of internet adoption and search behaviour with a cross-section of Saudi consumers, located in the UK (N=481). Findings from the first phase demonstrated that Saudi Arabian travel firms continue to rely on offline booking methods and have been relatively slow to adopt online systems. Key factors influencing the adoption of online travel booking technology included attitudinal and cultural factors and an absence of customer trust, security and privacy. The second phase results indicated that information search and evaluation emerged as a single highly integrated process, however behavioural elements within the process varied across individuals, according to their search strategy and level of prior experience. In phase three, the key relationships in the conceptual model were examined, notably the relationship between search constructs and purchase intention. Only a few past studies have examined information search and evaluation in relation to purchase in emerging markets. This study offers a more in-depth perspective on search intention and information search and evaluation in the pre-purchase stage for online travel products. Key insights have emerged on the nature of the relationship between search intention, information search and evaluation and purchase intention through the development of a more comprehensive conceptual framework than in prior studies. The qualitative research demonstrated a) how search ability and search strategies were reflective of confident and well-established search behaviour on the part of Saudi consumers and b) gender and regional variations c) that the nature of information search and evaluation is shaped by behavioural differences at an individual consumer level. The study also offers a deeper understanding of the challenging perceptions that exist with regards to the slow adoption of online travel processes among Saudi Arabian travel firms.

This study analyzes the sociocultural factors that affect Saudi students in the U.S. as they seek information and explores to what extent these factors impact their everyday life information seeking (ELIS) behavior and their information technology behavior (ITB). The factors in this study illustrate the unique sociocultural values that distinguish Saudi students from other international student groups: gender segregation, emphasis on religion, social support, and utilization of the consultation concept. After collecting data from an online survey, the data from linear regression analyses revealed that only one culture factor (the language barrier) showed a significant impact on Saudi student ELIS in the U.S., while the other factors were not statistically significant. Also, the findings indicated that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) were statistically significant to the ELIS of Saudi students. Furthermore, the study showed that after academic information, food and drink, entertainment, and health were the top student needs, the top ranking sources for everyday life seeking information were social media and the Internet. The findings of the study help to shed light on a sizable user group. As the fourth largest group of international students in the U.S., Saudi students have been underrepresented in research. Also, the study's findings and recommendations provide a more profound understanding of Saudi students for both the hosting American university officials and stakeholders who provide scholarships.

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The central theme of this study is to survey and critically examine existing Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Management Development Programs (MDPs) in order to determine which areas of the current programs must be given priority and greater emphasis at Saudia, as well as to ascertain MDP's effects on managers, staff managers, and supervisors. The purposes of this study are (1) to review and evaluate the progress made in managerial development at Saudia from 1972 to 1977 in terms of objectives and effectiveness, and (2) to explore the development of Saudia's managerial needs. The criteria used in this analysis are based upon managerial effectiveness. Although scattered significant differences appeared in some of the data presented in this study, no specific patterns were found among these differences, and it appeared that MDP could not produce any change in the behavior of those managers, staff managers, and supervisors who participated in it. This was a clear indication that MDP was far from achieving its objectives. Several factors contributed to this result, including misunderstanding of Saudi Arabian culture and circumstances; lack of support from top management; lack of manpower analysis; lack of cooperation, coordination, and communication between the training department and other departments at Saudia; lack of formal plans for management succession; and other reasons related directly to MDP.

There are a considerable number of Saudi Arabian students who attend U.S. schools. To date, no published studies exist that relate to the Saudi Arabian students, their families, and how they acculturate to the American society. Acculturation affects parents and children in different ways, and it can affect the way parents raise their children. Using semi–structured interviews, this study examined Saudi mothers' perspectives on acculturation to American society and how those perspectives affect their childrearing beliefs and their children's behaviors. The descriptive qualitative study acknowledges mothers' perceptions about adaptation of Saudi children to American society and if those parents observe behavioral changes in their children. The results showed there are some changes that occurred regarding parental beliefs of parents due to acculturation, but there were not any behavioral problems caused by acculturation to the American culture in the Saudi children.

This thesis purports to explore and describe the types of information that would be obtainable to the anthropological researcher if he used the minimally structured small group (MDMS-SG) technique with members of a selected ethnic group. The approach was tried on Japanese Portland State University students and also on Saudi Arab Portland State University students for six sessions each. They were told that a graduate anthropology student wanted to get to know them and learn what they thought she should know about their countries. The sessions were taped and notes written after each session. This corpus of material was analyzed using the closed corpus technique which necessitates use of the entire corpus and only the corpus. Post-categorization was used, it being especially appropriate in pilot studies and/or in original exploratory research where the emphasis is on induction rather than deduction. The verbal and other behavioral phenomena exhibited by the two “cultural” groups were compared and an attempt made to isolate that which was distinctively Arab or Japanese. Presence-absence counts and the relative frequency with which behavioral items were exhibited determined whether or not an item was differentiating. Those differences occurred in six major areas which included responses to the constants of the total situation, patterns of organization, paralinguistic phenomena exhibited, interaction patterns displayed, emotions expressed and finally the subject matter discussed. These then are areas for or aspects about which the anthropological investigator can expect to obtain data if he uses the MDMS-SG with “cultural” groups. These differences were then compared with information gathered about Arab and Japanese cultures from other sources. The working hypothesis that the Arab group would spontaneously exhibit significant behavioral differences from the Japanese group under MDMS-SG conditions and that these differences would be related to the ethnic background of that larger population of which they are a part was utilized. The two groups were substantially different and these differences were in the direction of the differences between the two ethnic groups from which they come. Therefore the assumption, while not proved, was substantially strengthened. In the Arab and Japanese groups, it was found that the group reactions to the total situation—the physical surroundings, the investigator, the fact of meeting at all, etc.- -almost all coincided with the written literature. It would seem therefore that the MDMS-SG could be used prior to field work with an unstudied group. Organizational patterns are ideally and easily studied through the use of the MDMS-SG. It could be a part of every ethnology besides having practical significance (i.e. in facilitating international communication) but is only rarely studied now.

Since the inauguration of the King Abdullah-Aziz Foreign Scholarship Program in 2005, the number of Saudi university students in the United States has increased exponentially, and an unprecedented amount of Saudi women are seeking international degrees. The absence of scholarly research within these women���s home and host countries highlights the need for an ethnographic account of their transnational experiences, which can elucidate ways in which knowledge, values, and customs are in a constant process of contextual negotiation. This in turn influences available sources of social support and psychological well-being. Drawing on data from free-lists, a focus group, and in-depth semi-structured interviews, this ethnographic research aims to uncover and examine the social determinants of psychological well-being as described by the narrative experiences of Saudi Arabian women studying at Oregon State University. After providing a detailed analysis of specific sociocultural structures operating in these women's lives, two sides qualifying Saudi Arabian women's experiences are examined: stakes of their international education projects and challenges in maintaining good mental health. These stakes, formed by sociocultural structures, circumscribe their experiences, decisions, and behavior in the U.S., where they must navigate through new challenges and sources of distress. The challenges they face cause distress, but also delineate possible sources of support and create avenues for agency. Finally, this thesis is concluded by recommending applications for mental health care providers and examining macro-level theoretical underpinnings of social determinants of psychological well-being. / Graduation date: 2012