Travel And Hospitality In Late Antiquity A Case Study From Umm El-Jimal In Eastern Jordan

Contrary to the impression given in the academic literature, travel and hospitality are not recent phenomena (Vukonie 2010). People in antiquity traveled for leisure, trade, sports, religion, health, and to visit renowned cities (Rabotic 2014; Chambers 2010). The erroneous belief that this was not so is attributable to the limited research carried out that considers tourism in the context of historical and archaeological research (Andriotis 2009). The evidence for travel and tourism can actually be traced back approximately to 1480 B.C.E., when Queen Hatshepsut made the first-ever journey for the purpose of tourism to the land of Punt (Goeldner et al. 2000). During the fifth century B.C.E., Greek and Roman social elites pursued leisure in regions away from their cities (Casson 1985; Page and Connell 2009).