Environmental Features of Al Ahsa as a Starting Point for Creating a Metal Tourist Souvenir

(Alaa El-Din Hamid, Mohamed El Bezra and Muntaha Al Hashel)

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Abstract

The paper aimed to explore the environmental and cultural heritage-related characteristics of Al Ahsa, studying the historical heritage symbolic elements so as to design new ideas for metal tourist souvenirs. This is as well as providing job opportunities for graduated students with the aim of enhancing the national income through tourist activation. The study experiment carried on a group of students of the Department of Art Education at King Faisal University to produce a set of metal tourist souvenirs, inspired by ِAl Ahsa environmental elements. The result showed that Al Ahsa has a wealth of historical heritage with artistic symbols, which could be spiritual sources to create tourist souvenir designs applicable on the metal, activating the heritage in the touristic souvenir market. This is in addition to encouragement of traditional artisans to produce touristic souvenirs reflecting the echo of a historical and cultural region. The research concludes with the promotion of tourist souvenir from metals spirited from the aesthetic value of Al Ahsa environmental symbols. This may, consequently, improve the level of the economic efficiency of tourism and transfer the development of the tourism industry. KEYWORDS heritage, traditional crafts, tourism, creation, metalworking, souvenirs
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