For centuries a place of pilgrimage, the ancient Biblical town of Madaba opened its first three-star hotel on Tuesday as part of a strategy to encourage visitors to stop over, while providing job opportunities for local people. The Madaba Inn Hotel, owned by the Social Security Corporation, is situated in the heart of the town opposite the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, famous for its 6th century mosaic map of the Holy Land.
Munther Hamarneh, director of accommodation and public relations at the hotel, told The Jordan Times that the hotel was constructed following a feasibility study. "The rationale behind the establishment of the hotel is to encourage tourists to stay in Madaba overnight, rather than just visiting the archaeological sites in one day due to a lack of suitable accommodation," said Hamarneh.
Source: [The Jordan Times]
This piece of news about my hometown of Madaba has pleased me to no end. I expressed my infatuation with Madaba in an earlier post so I won’t add more to it here. I’m just looking forward to visiting this hotel on my next visit to Jordan.
I was in Madaba 2 summers ago, 2004
My parents were born there and I absolutely love going there, even more than Amman. I was there when this hotel was in the process of being built so I am happy to know that it is completed and I too would hope that tourists stay overnight to see the other things madaba has to offer such as the church, haret jdoudna, other restaurants share3 il gharbee… the street where most shopping is, and the people of course.
Maysoun
I hope that those hotels are affordable too so that locals can also enjoy the stay. I was thrilled when I visited Jordan few years ago to see the fancy hotels/ resorts on the Dead Sea. They were expensive though; almost empty but from some tourists and hotel staff.