Landscape of Facades:

The Tourist Commodification of Petra

by Waleed Hazbun

ACOR presentation, April 18, 1998, 3pm

Note: Draft, some data preliminary, do not quote without author’s permission.

“The dream of tourism”

[slide[1]: Petra Inn sign with standing horse]

Recently I spent a week doing fieldwork in Petra. While I did some hiking around the site and joined Patrica and her crew for a day at the Ridge Church dig, I actually spent most of my time in Wadi Musa, the Jordanian village set outside the entrance of the world famous archaeological site.

Unlike most ACOR people who do fieldwork around Petra, my topic is not archaeology, but the political economy of tourism.

For those who might ridicule this as too cushy sounding a topic, take a minute to think about what a day in Wadi Musa hanging out at hotels is really like. All day long, even in high season, they are dead quite because everyone is inside Petra. During my fieldwork in these haunts exploring the recent history of the rapid uncontrolled expansion hotel development, I began to sense them as eerie and lonely, if not totally depressing places.

By the end of the week, the exuberant promise of this Petra Inn sign declaring “the dream of tourism,” ran very hollow and, after seeing the effect tourism development has had on the built environment, I began to see this sign not simply pointing to another hotel, but on its own representing what tourism development in Petra had become, a shallow facade.

By the end of this talk I will try to explain this observation by presenting an analysis of what such dreams of tourism are made of. That is to say, I will focus on the development of tourism as a commercial activity and its rapid expansion in Petra over the last few years.

My project concerns how the experience of Petra, as well as the space near the site, and even representations of the site have been turned into commodities to be bought, sold and circulated in the capitalist market economies of the tourism industry. I will trace the rapid intensification of this commodification process in terms of its numeric expansion as well as present a framework to analyze the various qualitative modes of commodification we have been witnessing.

The challenge of this project is to combine the tools of economic analysis with cultural criticism in order to provide a basis in which to seek to usefully critique and influence the process of tourism development.

Tourism as a commodity

[turn off slide projector]

The process of commodification has historically been linked with the processes of capitalist development and industrialization. During these processes the ownership and use of land and labor, for example, increasingly became dislodged from regulation by local social institutions such as the family, and became defined as objects for economic circulation regulated by impersonal market networks. In the course of the current century we have seen all aspects of culture and experience, such as music and sex, become increasingly commodified. Tourism is no exception and, if fact, the Grand Tour of the previous century was an early form of commodification of the consumption of high culture.

Tourism is a commodity formed by the transformation and packaging of experiences, geographies and cultures into products tourists purchase and consume. It is by this process that tourism commodities—be they scenic landscapes, museum visits or hotel stays—enter into to the system of economic valuation..they are given price tags and are subject to cultural tastes and market forces.

The value of tourism commodities is vulnerable to a wide range of factors from changes in spending power and currency exchange rates, to cycles of fashion, and to political events far away. Somehow, this great complexity co-exists with low entrance barriers into the industry, leading to often very inexperience entrepreneurs attempting to engage in the industry.

One important way in which the study of the tourism industry in Jordan could benefit the nation itself is to educate people about what it means to create this commodity of tourism. I think is might be analogous to the issue archeologist face today where there is still this impression out there that what archaeologists do is dig for buried treasures. Professional tourism development, like archeological practice did, can develop and mature to serve a wider range of ends.

The political economy of tourist commodification

While this project does not directly challenge the premise of tourist commodification, we can identify limits past which the process should be prevented. Such a limit is the commodification of the archeological site of Petra itself, such as through the selling off of its antiquities. While proposals might be made here and there about legalizing the selling off of objects which are nearly useless for scientific purposes, such as excess duplicate pottery shards, most would argue that this would be highly undesirable and for most is considered professionally unethical. It would legitimate a form of commodification which would be difficult to monitor, regulate, and contain.

Tourist commodification of an archeological site, though, can take place indirectly by commodifing the experience of the site, the space near the site, and/or representations of the sites. To analyze these forms of tourism development in Petra, I first want to present a simple three part typology of modes commodification.

One mode is where value is based on rent.

This is when the holder of a property in and around a tourist site extracts a fee for entry, use, or ownership of this land, space, or object. The amount of income derived is determined by how tourists or tourism entrepreneurs value the touristic features or economic opportunities of this property.

Another mode is what I call tourist capital development.

The mode of value creation is produced by investments in fixed capital employed to create tourist commodities such as goods, services or experiences which tourist will purchase. This forms of commodification can be as simple as a soda stand or as complex as a Disneyland-type amusement park which produces, food, lodging, and artificial tourist experiences.

The third mode of commodification is the generation of touristic representations.

This includes any symbols or texts which are purchased/consumed by tourists for their informative, interpretive, or symbolic content. Unlike material properties which accrue rents, or tourist capital which produces goods, services, or experiences, touristic representations embody knowledge or symbols with limited costs for their reproduction or for the consumption by multiple tourists. They may, though, be embedded in or tied to the consumption of other commodities (goods, services, or experiences) which must be purchased discretely.

One obvious example is that of a poster of an archeological which is purchased in a gift shop. A more sophisticated example of a representational value creation process is the commodification of archeological information. Most such information was produced independently of the capitalist commodification processes, i.e. not for the goal of producing profit (though possibly for a fee). But when that information is embodied in a guide book, such as the Blue Guide or the Al Kutba publications, it then becomes a commodity.[2]

Most any tourist establishments likely engages in elements of all three modes. A museum, for example, may provide extensive education and interpretation about various artifacts, or it might simply gather, house and preserve a collection objects, and thus it is more strictly just a capital development project. Then there is also the possibility that a property owner, usually the government, puts up a fence around some interesting historical or nature site and does little but charge an entry fee. In this case it is only collecting rent.

My approach to tourism development—which combines a concern for sustainable economic development with a desire for robust tourist experiences—is that institutions for the promotion and regulation of tourism development should seek to prevent imbalances between these three modes of commodification in each project of tourism development. Additionally, this goal is best insured if there is a diversity of government, private, and non-profit actors engaging in this process.

The basic argument of this talk is that the process of tourism development in Petra has been marked by excesses of rent extraction with the rapid expansion of capital developments in hotels having been very rent-like, geared to capturing short terms profits. As yet representational and interpretive commodities have been underdeveloped and unsophisticated, leaving the landscape with the numbing repetition of Treasury facades, uninteresting imported souvenirs, and uninformative picture books.

I believe that tourism can be and should be promoted as a knowledge intensive industry where commodity develop is based on a more interesting, robust, and compelling interpretive texts, images, and objects which expand the breath and diversity of the tourism experience.

The early development of the tourism industry in Petra

While I won’t go exhaustively through it here, one could do a reading of the history of 19th century travelers to Petra in terms of this typology of commodity production. Their travelogues report that often local tribes extracted fees for entry or access to the sites. They also generally provided accommodations to the travelers and often gave useful information about locations the visitors want to see.

These travelers in turn representationally commodified Petra by writing and selling their travelogues and journals, and of course there are the David Robert’s lithographs. I have not investigates to what degree these were profitable ventures and I don’t figure that Robert’s estate collects any more for every reproduction located given out by the tourism ministry or put up in hotel rooms. Thus even if they were not profit making ventures this flood of representations made Petra in the Western mind became something that was consumed through purchasing books, magazines, and pictures. These representations then played a crucial role in the history of the commodification of Petra as they promoted and marketed the site as a tourist destination which would later increase the commodification of the site itself.

Increases in tourist flows to Petra led to the developed of organized accommodation facilities. The first establishment came in the mid 1920s when Thomas Cook and Sons established a camp inside Petra. By the 1940s it was sold to the Nazzal family who built at hotel at the site in 1956/7 (which was later turned over the government to be used to house archaeologists).

By the mid 1960s Petra was receiving 20 to 30 thousand visitors a year. In 1964 the government resthouse was built. At the time bed and breakfast was 1.500 JD, while full board at the Nazzal camp went for 3.500 JD. Still the Wadi Musa police station offered cots at 250 fils a night. The limited level of commodification of Petra is best represented by the fact that until not so long ago it was possible to sleep in the caves on your own. The 1987 edition of the Lonely Planet guide even comments that this way you can save on paying an addition 1 JD entrance fee for your second day in the ruins.

Hotel expansion and the tourist explosion

For a long stretch of this century Jordan was primarily a draw for Holy Land tourists, and Petra remained an out-of-the-way adventure. But once a modern road cut the trip from Amman to only 3 hours, making a day trip possible (lodging options were limited), the number of tourist visits expanded. By 1987 Petra drew over 70,000 tourists per year. In 1989, the year of the “Indiana Jones” film, the number shot up to about 120,000.

At the beginning of this decade there were only two real hotels in Petra, the government owned Forum and Resthouse with a total capacity of 244 rooms. With the renewed economic hopes of the late 1980s, the success of the Spielberg film, and a post-Gulf war recovery of tourism, a few projects were being developed. By 1994 the Forum expanded, a string of about seven basic 20 to 30 room hotels went up, and the upscale King’s Way was being built. These almost doubled the capacity to 467.

It was then after the high profile signing of the Peace Treaty with Israel in 1994 that Petra exploded as a tourist destination. Between 1995 and 1996 over 200,000 Israelis visited Jordan with the great majority visiting what for them was a forbidden city of legend. Total visitors to Petra rose from below 50,00 during 1991 Gulf War ebb to 200,000 in 1994 and then jumped to 330,000 in 1995 and then to 414,000 in 1996.

This rapid influx of tourism set the hotel developers spinning and made hotel developers out of just about anyone in Wadi Musa. When asked how long after the signing did the buzz begin, one informant in the industry said “just weeks, maybe even days.” Some residents converted their existing apartments into make-shift hotels, others who were building a private house quickly tried to retool them as best they could for hotels. Soon big developers from Amman were buying up expensive plots of land for grand visions of a tourist mecca.

In just two years after the Peace the capacity had quadrupled again to 2,000 rooms. This came at a cost of 70 to 80 million dollars in hotel construction alone. With many tens of millions of additional dollars coming from international agencies and going into belated infrastructure development plans.

Land ownership and land values

One stark indicator of the commodification this tourist growth provoked is to look at what happened to land values. While most of the smaller hotels were built by the Wadi Musa families (such as the Tawaissis and Nawaflehs) who owned various plots of land in the area, the developers of the larger more luxurious hotels bought land outright from the local Wadi Musa owners. Before the tourist boom a dunnum of land could go for about $1,000. Most of the hotel developers who started before the peace boom got their land at what seemed a reasonable 2,000 to 10,000 per dunnun. But then after the boom prices shot up to around $50,000 per dunnun. At the extreme high end was the Movenpick, a classy new hotel set on the strip near the entrance of Petra, which reportably paid $140,000 per dunnun.

Role of government

The government reaction to these development was to extract more rent from their property, that is to increase dramatically the entrance fee to Petra. The 1994 UNESCO report thought 5 JD was steep as a per day charge and suggested it be a three day pass. But in 1995, partially as a reaction to the Israel bus loads which came for the day not staying at a hotel or evening wanting to buy some water from the B’dul but mostly as a grad for hard currency, there as a fourfold increase in the admission cost from 5JD to 20 for a day’s visit to Petra.

When the fee was at 1 JD the government barley made 100,00 JD per year. With the 5 JD rate they were making half a million in 1993 before the Peace. The next year still at the 5 JD rate revenues climbed to 1 million JD. Then with the 20 JD fee and increases in tourist flows state revenues increased 500 percent in one year to over 6 million JDs in 1995, about where they have remained since.

It is interesting to contrast this experience with the B’dul tribe who had made Petra their home and historically claimed rights to income from the tourist trade. With the development of the archeological Park the state claimed ownership of the property. In the mid 1980s the B’dul were displaced up to an enclave at Um Sayhun. They since attempted to stake out an existence with souvenir shops and soda stands, but the regional authorities have recently limited and controlled these operations.

As we will see below the tribes who held property rights outside of Petra in Wadi Musa fared differently. Their established property rights and tribal power have insured them access to other sort of rents and economic opportunities.

A UNESCO report written just before the tourist boom clearly states that no hotel permits should be given out until a comprehensive development plan for the area is drawn up. But even as state authorities informed developers that infrastructure projects would not come on line for several years these residents and other developers acquired permits to build hotel. It was only after the establishment of the Petra Regional Council in mid 1995 that a ban on permits was put into place. Developments were also limited by the rise in land prices and the leveling off and shrinking of tourist flows by 1997.

While the help of the world Bank and other agencies infrastructure development and more rational zoning policies are being implemented, but the urban landscape has been radically transformed.

Critique of hotels

[turn on slide projector: blank screen]

In the remaining part of this presentation I want to take you on a brief slide-show tour of these hotel developments viewing them in terms of the various modes of tourism commodity valuation described above.

Wadi Musa hotels

[Wadi Petra circle]

Since the 1994 Peace a string of quickly built and often makeshift hotels have sprung up around downtown Wadi Musa. A few were set up for budget travelers but most are seeking to capture some share of the group tour business that in entering Petra.

[Valley Hotel]

What is most striking about these insta-hotels is the obvious poor construction of most of the facilities. Some are half built and barely recognizable as a hotel in the

landscape of the recent home construction boom.

[Mid Town Hotel with shinning road]

Most are low enough to limit their effect on the skyline, but the ratty look of the Mid Town Hotel, the pink one in the middle here, looks like something out of an American urban ghetto.

[Mid Town Hotel from street]

Up close...

[Mid Town Close up of Corner]

...you notice how quick and sloppily the facade was thrown on.

[Petra Inn with Flower, Petra Moon, Venus]

Even for some of the better hotels down closer to Petra, there is an obvious lack of integration into the townscape. Most notable is a places down by the Flowers Hotel which lacks a proper road or sidewalk around it.

While some of the accommodation facilities may be adequate, my point is that for the most part I view these establishments as efforts at extracting rent from the rapid increases in tourist flows. Their capital developments efforts are not particular valuable or sustainable on their own merits.

Thinking about the Petra Inn for a moment, this was a case where one of the Tawaissi family who owned much of the land in this lower area in the entrance, quickly after the Peace thought a hotel would be a good idea. Without any marketing study, feasibility study, or hotel industry training they with the help of some bank loans put up a nice but sterile 30 room hotel. Two years later the manager now finds himself tied down to this establishment which he must personally oversee, but with little interesting work to do. He told me he sold his old architecture and construction office to help pay for the hotel, but now he finds he make about a 1/4 the money and no longer gets to stuff like play with computers all day. He is hoping someone would just buy the place from him, land and all, and so he could set up some other sort of business.

Road hotels

[Hotel sign and road]

As scappy as many of the Wadi Musa hotels are, the large luxury projects on the Taybeh road are vulgar. While the World Bank is financing a four lane scenic road along the cliff overlooking the Petra Park, four extravagant luxury hotels are going up financed by the top families in the Jordanian tourism sector such as the Kabaritis, Nazzals, and Nassars. These hotels combined the quick grab for tourism rents with high levels of capital development.

[Grand View top shot]

Unlike the Wadi Musa hotels they are no expense spared operations.

[Nabatean Castle]

I would guess they cost at least 5 million dollars a piece. They are lavishly decorated cost top dollar.

[Shot of doorman]

During the day, though, they are especially grand lonely pretentious palaces.

Taybeh Zaman

Continuing along the road we get to the curious complex of Taybeh Zaman.

[TZ above]

This is a product of Jordan Tourism Investments or JTI who brought you the successful restaurant complex of Kan Zaman. It is worth noting that that project was realized by a combination of the entrepreneurship of the travel agent Munir Nassar and the land and capital of the Abu Jaber family.

The self-styled “authentic 19th century tourist village” of Taybeh Zaman warrants being considered a project which has not sought the quick capture of rents but instead has ventured to create a new and unique form of tourist capital development which includes a high representation and interpretive content.

[TZ walk with posts over]

This tourist village was built from an abandoned Jordanian village, its architecture a remnant of the 19th century vernacular style. In fact, JTI created a profit sharing agreement with the land owners as well as gave much the village jobs at the project.

They rebuilt the ruined houses and turned the place into a 5 star hotel.

[TZ craft center]

The idea was to preserve and present to tourists this bit of native Jordan culture and heritage. It also house a series of craft workshops which are attempting to produce local handicrafts for sale, to replace the imported ones that have dominated the shops in Wadi Musa.

[TZ museum]

It is one for the few hotels that comes with a booklet about village history and even includes on the site a museum of sorts.

[TZ plaza]

I think, though, in many ways this project is limited because it presents only a sterile facade of the 19th century village. I found the reconstruction antiseptic and bizarre, as it attempts to recreate a village atmosphere but incorporates the descendants of the villages as waiters in Turkish dress.

Nevertheless the idea behind the project marks it as a risky, radically step on the part of Jordanian tourism. While it might be struggling financial, I hear, the innovation behind it is a trait that should be encouraged.

Tayebat Village

But to the misery of those better intentioned, this project has led to a spate of imitations which themselves instead of developing new interpretive cultural projects resort to trying to cash in on the innovation and success of Taybeh project by producing a pale facade of that village.

[Royal Motel]

This motel next to the Petra Regional Council may be a reconstructed traditional house, but it is even more lonely and sterile.

[T entrance with street and sign]

To my knowledge one of the strangest imitators is the Tayebat Village complex located in all Places Wahdat, the home of a Palestinian refugee camp.

[T McD plaza]

While is has, in fact, become on holidays a sort of public space of the residence of Wahdat, the style is a bizarre case of mall-ified 19th century vernacular Jordanian village.

[T Mc D in distance]

The layout seems to intentional recreate the non grid patter of the 19th century villages, but this place lacks the senses of character, community, and intimacy that the village structures had.

[T two level market stalls]

At some points the facade of the reconstructed village is very crude. Here we can see the exposed concrete of the floor to the second level.

Compare, for example,

[TZ souq with posts over]

the market stalls at Taybeh

[T market stalls]

with those at Tayebat, which I often refer to as the fake souq.

The landscape of facades

[tourist looking up at treasury]

Such projects represent the extreme form of facade structure that is common place in Jordanian tourism: where a shallow facade is thrown on in a quick attempt to draw the tourist.

[Treasury]

This here is obviously the Treasury in Petra, You are sure to have see it even if you have never been to Petra as representations of it are every where from the cover of every guide book and study of Petra, to even the wrapping of Jabri ice cream cones, to even the window grating on the ACOR house in Wadi Musa. Sorry I only have a print not a slide of that one.

[Amra Palace]

Another dominate feature of the Wadi Musa landscape is the range of representations of the Petra facades used as facades for hotels and restaurants.

This here is the Amra Palace hotel

[Cleopetra Restaurant]

One of my favorite is the Cleopetra Restaurant.

I think this facade image conveys much of the shallow environment of tourism development in Wadi Musa, where there have been efforts to quickly and superficially cash in on popularity of the recognizable archeological sites but with little interpretive effort being out into these representation.

Ba’albaki tourist complex

[Slide: blank]

I want to end this talk by just noting that the facade does have its place.

Driving back to Amman I was thinking to myself about where does it look like Jordan tourism is going.

I came across the Ba’albaki Tourism Complex which is a super clean and modern full serivce hiway stop.

[BTC inside]

This bit of roadside culture looks like it could have been inspired by a reading of Robert Venturi’s “Learning from Las Vegas.”

[BTC tower]

Note how the tower itself is a facade.

[BTC Roadside]

My point is that the place for the tourist facade is along the roadside. That’s a model for billboards and gas stations, but I would hope not for cultural tourism.

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[1] All slides in this presentation were taken by Michelle Woodward, a professional freelance photographer working in Amman, Jordan.

[2] At this point, while exposing his role in the process of commodification, I would like to acknowledge the help of Matthew Teller who is writing the Rough Guide to Jordan and who has passed on to me very valuable information and insights about Petra hotels.