For the last three days I have been basking in the summer-like heat of the Dead Sea, drinking free champaign and rubbing elbows with representatives of North and Latin American travel operators, agencies, associations and media publications. It is really not as exciting as it sounds (does it sound exciting?), except for all that glorious, complementary booze.
And while not in my inebriated haze or wolfing done free food like its my job, I did have a chance to witness a unique cultural microcosm where Brazilians, Mexicans, Americans, Canadians and Jordanians were either outrightly or inadvertently insulting each other. Intercultural communication can be so fun.
The pinnacle of this spectacle came during a question and answer panel session. Representatives basically told Jordan: "You won't be a one-stop tourist destination, ever. So get over it and start riding the Egypt and Israel gravy train." Some of the more loaded arguments involved the Jordanian Visa requirement, which Americans dubbed a psychological obstacle for inexperienced travelers. A Brazilian made a remark that Israel didn't require a Visa, which prompted a Jordanian to shout at him to go to the border and see how long he waited there as compared to the Visa line at the Jordanian Airport. And at one point a Jordanian's plea to hear more about the positive aspects of their Kingdom that they could promote was, perhaps due to some sort of language barrier, fulfilled by a Mexican who told him that Jordanian service workers smelled.
But the very best was from an impassioned elderly American woman who sanctimoniously lectured the crowd about how for a long time North Americans had a negative view of the Arab world, and with good reason [sic]. But that thanks to Jordan's Israeli friends [sic] more and more people were returning to the region for peace tourism [sic]. And all Jordan had to do was show these tourists their renown hospitality and use those magical Arabic phrases Shoukran (thank you) and Ahlan wa Shalan (welcome) to galvanize the world into a paradigm shift of loving your brother (obviously not sic).
1 comment:
It would be wrong to phrase what happened at the recent Jordan Travel Mart down to a slanging-match at a meeting that actually proved to be quite fruitful in which a lively discussion between the panel and the audience took place. A lot of interaction happened in the three-day (10-12 February) event, between Buyers from (North and South America) and Jordanian sellers. Travel professionals and organizers from both side of the Atlantic said how productive the meetings and the tours of Jordan were. Organizers (Jordanians and Americans) said how pleased they were with the smoothness of the event; and they said that from the constant feedback and observations they were getting from the floor. Whether some of this were diplomatic chit-chat we will wait to see until everyone goes home and the B2B initiatives continue to be conducted in terms of the creation of travel packages to Jordan; but from just looking at the Travel Mart floor at the King Hussein Convention Center, you could see a lot of "ticking” was taking place between the buyers and sellers, and from virtually everyone you talked to had a positive response of what was happening. As the Stallion writer alluds to it was a meeting in cultural interaction but not an attempt to insult each other. I think in the Jordanian Travel Mart everyone was happy to be meeting each other were face-to-face contact was made, and in some cases deals were talked about with the promise of internet follow-up. Much feedback on the internet, and as from the Stallion post does as well, is concentrate on the parties and the booze, obviously for people to read, but we must not downplay the object of the JTM which was to bring tour operators and travel professionals together to generate business and bring people together and bring down cultural barriers, and it is here where the importance of the Jordanian travel Mart lies in. Ok so there were negative comments but this is to be expected and its indeed healthy.
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