The effectiveness of a proposed program in sustainable ecotourism in developing Basic Education students' knowledge, behavior and attitudes toward the developmental dimensions of sustainable tourism in the Sultanate of Oman.

The Sultanate of Oman has diversified the sources of national income into a priority in all its development plans in order to reduce dependence on volatile oil prices, especially in recent years, which have witnessed a decline in prices, affecting national income. This has led the decision-makers to work hard to find other sources that enhance national income, including the tourism sector, which is a promising sector due to the geographic location of the Sultanate and its geographical nature, which is distinguished by its unique mountains, plains, beaches and deserts. In addition to its long and richest history, which is still present in all governorates of the Sultanate. These features enhance both domestic and foreign tourism which lead the concerned bodies in the government to encourage citizens, residents and tourists from all over the world to explore and enjoy Omani tourism. In order to enhance the efforts made in the field of developing domestic tourism especially among future generation, the idea of this project evolved, which seeks to identify the knowledge, behavior and attitudes of students of basic education towards the developmental dimensions of sustainable development in relation to sustainable environmental tourism. The students today are the decision-makers of tomorrow, and the entrepreneurs in the various tourist areas, and the wheel supporting the internal tourism. Therefore, it is necessary to find an integrated program that enables these students to learn about the tourism elements in the Sultanate, especially the natural ones, and the investment opportunities available in this sector and how to invest them in a sustainable manner and how to preserve these natures generation after generation, in order to be a sustainable source of national income. The current project seeks to develop an a comprehensive program on sustainable ecotourism in the Sultanate of Oman with the aim of developing the knowledge of students of Basic Education on in sustainable tourism, the natural tourism elements of Oman, the risks that threaten these elements, the mechanisms of conservation and sustainability, the existing projects and future projects in the field of ecotourism and investment fields. The project also aims to develop students' attitudes towards the environment, towards sustainable internal ecotourism and students' good behaviors towards the paces that hold ecotourism. This study will follow the semi-experimental approach. A sample of students from the tenth grades will be selected from some of the Sultanate's governorates such as Muscat, the Al-Dalkhlyia and Southern Batinah. Six male and female schools will be selected by two classes from each governorate for the experimental group (one male and one female) and six other people from the same governorates as control groups. The program will include a variety of materials such as environmental and tourism documents, multimedia, maps, photographs, statistics, publications, models, films, interviews with tourism and environment figures, local and international reports, international experiences, classroom and non-descriptive activities, Reality, and provide future visions for sustainable eco-tourism, and propose projects in the field of sustainable environmental tourism investment, the recruitment of Google Earth, and interactive websites. Enhanced reality technologies and the virtual environment will also be used. The data will be collected through quantitative and qualitative tools such as: test to measure students' knowledge of the sustainable development dimensions of sustainable ecotourism, a test to assess future thinking skills in sustainable ecotourism, attitudes scale towards sustainable eco-tourism, scale to assess students' behavior towards both the environment and internal ecotourism. As well as group discussion interviews with students, their parents and teachers. It is hoped that the study results will be in line with Oman's vision for Oman 2040 to strengthen national capacities in various fields of development, including sustainable tourism. It will contribute to the development of a comprehensive program that can be distributed and used by all schools to enhance students' knowledge, attitudes and behaviors as well as the development of the spirit of entrepreneurship in the field of ecotourism and the development of an educational website related to ecotourism. This study will benefit both the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Tourism and the institutions concerned with entrepreneurship in the Sultanate of Oman.