When and why was it deemed necessary to develop a new hotel classification system for Jordan?
HE Maha Khatib: The need for a new system was identified as part of the Quality Assurance component of Jordan’s National Tourism Strategy 2004-2010. Tourism has become one of the main income generators for Jordan and therefore, quality assurance was given greater importance. It was necessary to update the previous system in order to upgrade hotel standards to include items demanded by 21st century tourists and meet their dramatically increased expectations. The old hotel classification system was developed in 1993 by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) and it focused mainly on the structural element of a hotel and very little on quality and services provided. It also included standards related to fire, health, safety and building codes, which are not the specialty of hotel assessors When the system was revised, it put the customer as the central focus of the hotel operation, and therefore an item or an area would not be considered a standard for classification if it is not s
