My Jordan Journey: Six Years Later
I shouldn’t have to remind myself that we are privileged to work in this industry. After all, travel and tourism is transformative, life-changing, character building, and lays the foundation for so many memories. But often we can become jaded, as singular moments become a blur, one indistinguishable from the next. No doubt, this is a common problem to have due to the high-tech stimuli we face every day, but I try hard to rise above it. I intentionally look to find a morsel of wonder in everything I do.
Every so often, you get to experience something that simply takes your breath away. It feels 100 percent right and you become the best form of yourself because you’re amongst company that’s incomparable and it raises the bar to a new level that you know you need to be at. I recently experienced this when I traveled to Jordan this past February.
Tourism Cares has had a longstanding relationship with the country of Jordan and the Jordan Tourism Board. Malia Asfour, is the managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board, North America, and is the current chair of the Tourism Cares Board of Directors. As my chair, when she invites you to Jordan, you say yes. But that wasn’t an easy proposition. The neighboring conflict in Gaza had brought tourism to a halt throughout the Middle East and many questions were being asked about the safety and appropriateness of traveling there at this time. Knowing Jordan’s longstanding reputation for peacemaking and tolerance, and furnished with the assurances of our host, I packed my bags with no afterthought.
This was my second time in Jordan. Tourism Cares hosted its Meaningful Travel Summit with Jordan almost six years to the day in February 2018. I needn’t remind anyone that times were different then, but in many ways not so. Jordan was starting to feel the effects of overtourism in Petra and strategically aligned with Tourism Cares to build the Meaningful Map of Jordan, identifying 12 initial social enterprises along the Jordan Trail to help push tourism beyond the beaten path and encourage local communities to see and use tourism as a force for good. At that time, I was solely a Tourism Cares board member and was somewhat unfamiliar with what a social enterprise was and how we could use travel and tourism to create true positive change. Six years may seem like a short time ago, but quite honestly, we all need to accelerate our transformations if we are going to make a difference.
This trip to Jordan was certainly different. We had a mercenary purpose, but I also wanted to see how those social enterprises were doing and whether they were flourishing and helping spawn a new generation of Meaningful Travel Map impact partners. Our incredible tour guide Majdi Kohof welcomed our group of tour operators, trade journalists, influencers, and industry partners like Tourism Cares and ATTA upon arrival in Amman, the City of Brotherly Love, with even greater reassurances that we were in a “quiet place within a busy neighborhood.” Not one thing made me question his word thereafter.
And then began the sites and the food. As Majdi liked to exclaim while pointing out highlights “W.O.W – Whiskey Oscar Whiskey” and that phrase took on new variations throughout our time there whenever we had a “wow” moment – and there were many! Each day we were hosted locally and often in private homes with an incredible spread of food, including the very best olive oil in the world. We experienced mansef, the traditional celebratory dish of Jordan eaten with one’s hands, and hospitality the size of the biggest hug you can imagine. Our host at the Marriott Dead Sea, Philip Papadopoulos personifies that hug. A reunion with him made me feel even more at home. Moreso, B-Corp thinking, regenerative principles, and a level of sophistication were sprinkled into local community experiences. We ate farm-to-table and purchased quality wares from local vendors who were proud, thankful, and always welcoming.
Returning to the original social enterprises on our Map was a true highlight, as I was able to see the progress, optimism, growth, and maturity of each organization on display. I re-connected with the group of women of Iraq Al Amir, whom I had also visited in 2018, and showed them old photos of us together and they smiled and purred in recognition. While I was not able to make it to Bani Hamida, I learned that their employee base of 17 women from 2018 had grown into the hundreds as their partnership with IKEA flourished. These are not fledgling roadside stops but must-see attractions, authentic and genuine. While my heart went out to each of them suffering through this latest crisis, I left feeling confident that they had progressed to a point where they will weather these tough times through the foundation they have built, along with the resilience and belief they have relied upon throughout history.
I realize I can never fully capture the spirit, camaraderie, sense of community, and open-armed hospitality of this wonderful country. How does one adequately put it into words and hit the nail on the head? I think of the great late Bob Whitley, who was fond of saying, “This is a place you need to visit before you die.” And I couldn’t agree more.
