Discovering commercial hospitality in ancient Rome

Commercial hospitality in Ancient Rome, argues Kevin O'Gorman, was complex and sophisticated. He is concerned that over-reliance on the surviving texts can lead to confusion: it is important to examine physical historical sites, like Pompeii, to get a sense of how these establishments worked, and to investigate them within a context of what we know about hospitality throughout history

Getting on with the job : a response to Jones and Lockwood

Peter Jones and Andrew Lockwood identified some of the reasons that hospitality management research and education is in a potential spiral of decline. Undeniably one of the main reasons is that the existence of the independent Hotel School model, within a university business school, is being questioned. Marketing, human resource management, finance, operations can all be taught by subject specialists, ideally underpinned by leading research. Hotel Schools per se are not a thing of the past, far from it, world-class centres exist, they are just not the subject of this reflection

Introduction to The origins of hospitality and tourism

The key focus of the book is on exploring the textural evidence from and about Classical Antiquity in order to identify aspects of the origins of hospitality and tourism. In nearly all cases the prime purpose of the texts was not to do with recording the history of hospitality. The content of this book focuses on the analysis of the incidences of hospitality that were identified. Consequently this is not a history book, although references are made and detail provided to help the reader to locate the incidences within the historic framework

Editorial: Hospitality in Universities... ماهنامه صنعت گردشگری

In the case of a university a good host is the one who believes that their guest is carrying a promise that they want to reveal to anyone who shows genuine interest. Through mutual support we encourage each other to reflect on life and develop a vision for our own journey through it. As this year begins let us hope for the peace that will allow us to continue to show true hospitality to each other

Origins of the commercial hospitality industry : from the fanciful to factual

Explores some of the different historical roots of commercial hospitality in three distinct epochs with the intention of promoting further empirical research and beginning an informed debate into the origins and evolution of the contemporary hospitality industry. Reports on empirical research based on texts, artefacts and archaeological evidence. Wherever possible all the primary sources were consulted in the original languages; all translations are the author's own unless otherwise stated. Contrary to established and often fanciful rhetoric, commercial hospitality has at least 4000 years of history in the area of investigation. The rich and incredibly diverse heritage of the hospitality industry is illustrated and the conclusions emphasise that hospitality research should focus on deepening understanding of the industry through empirical research; learning from the past helps to inform the future. The particular focus of this article is restricted to reporting to empirical studies of three epochs: Mesopotamia (c. 2000 BC); Pompeii (79 AD), and Middle Eastern Trade Routes (c. 700 AD onwards). These distinct time periods illustrate the different roots and highlight the need for further research into the evolution of the commercial hospitality industry. The origins of commercial hospitality is an under-researched area in hospitality management and this paper highlights the rich data that is available through disciplined empirical study

Review of 'Philosophical Issues in Tourism: Aspects of Tourism' By J. Tribe (Ed) Channel View Publications, Bristol (2009)

The eleventh century philosopher and Archbishop of Canterbury St Anselm wrote, 'I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand' (Anselm Proslogion 154-5). Anselm was asserting that, from a philosophical stance, nothing is achieved or ascertained by merely speculating from the sidelines; a certain level of committed thought and involvement is necessary. The editor and authors of this book have written an enlightening, refreshing text which exhibits that commitment to which St Anselm refers. The text does not speculate from the sidelines, but rather the authors, no doubt due to the clear direction of the editor, aim to immerse themselves in the considerable gap in understanding some of the philosophical issues that underpin contemporary comprehension of tourism

Monastic hospitality: the enduring legacy

This paper summarises the origins of western monastic hospitality, illustrates how it influences modern civic, commercial and domestic practices and reports on an empirical investigation into contemporary monastic hospitality. Research into the phenomenon of hospitality continues to broaden through an ever-increasing dialogue and alignment with a greater number of academic disciplines. This paper reports on an investigation into the hospitality offered by Benedictine monasteries and demonstrates how an enhanced understanding of hospitality can be achieved through synergy between social anthropology, philosophy and practical theology. All monastic hospitality takes its direction from St Benedict's Rule (530 AD); this foundational document became the basis of all western European religious hospitality. During the Middle Ages the western monasteries (as well as being the custodians of civilisation, knowledge and learning) had provided detailed and formalised rules for religious hospitality, the care of the sick and the poor, and responsibilities for refugees. The Protestant Reformation (c 1540) was to have a transforming affect on religious hospitality. Hospitable activities became separated from their Christian ties as the state increasingly took over more responsibility for them, although they adopted the principles of hospitality that had already been established within the monastic tradition and are still evident in civic, commercial and domestic hospitality. The empirical information on contemporary monastic hospitality presented in this paper was gathered by living in the monastic cloister with the monks themselves, sharing their day, their life, and their work. During the research it became clear that within the environment of the monastic community hospitality provision is extremely complex; there was a hierarchy of guests within the monastery and differing levels of hospitality provision. The research highlighted the use and division of space for the monks and their guests, types of accommodation, inclusion and exclusion, hospitality rules and rituals and the dichotomy between the social and commercial manifestation of hospitality within the monastery. The paper concludes by observing that the prima-facie purpose of a monastery is not to offer hospitality, it is to house the monks in a community environment so that they can dedicate their lives and live their vocation to the service of God. The Rule is clearly of the utmost importance to the running of the monasteries, however an element of change has been necessary to ensure the continuing survival of the monastery and its hospitality provision. Within the monastic community hospitality and the ritual reception of guests and the provision of hospitality play an important role by being both the bridge and the barrier between the monastic and secular worlds

The legacy of monastic hospitality : 1 the rule of Benedict and rise of western monastic hospitality

In the first of two articles about the founding father of hospitality, Kevin O'Gorman looks at St Benedict's rule and its context of in the monastic orders. Contemporary hospitality operators will find themselves in a very familiar world

Classical and modern hospitality : the Benedictine case

The development of the anthropology of tourism is anchored in the anthropology of hospitality. Interdisciplinary research further highlights just closely these are related to other disciplines; in this case history and theology. Benefits are also to be gained from multidisciplinary analysis of hospitality and tourism. When investigating contemporary hospitality sometimes there is the opportunity contextualise the investigation in the past in order to more fully understand the present; this opportunity to explore the historical dimension is often ignored, overlooked or misunderstood by some hospitality researchers resulting in flawed rhetoric, and work with little or no empirical research. However, recent advances in hospitality research have included the development of the hospitality conceptual lens (Lashley et al. 2007) that offers a potential framework for organising and presenting data. It has also provided the basis for the development of the dynamic Host-Guest Transaction Model, which allows the hospitality transaction between the host and the guest to be illustrated and explored. More importantly the model also assists with the understanding of the underpinning complexity within hospitality relationships. An overview of the approaches to investigating biblical hospitality highlight the problems associated with this type of research. The example of monastic hospitality shows that contemporary monastic hospitality has its foundations in much earlier practices and anthropological accounts. This is partly achieved by tracing hospitality back to one of its classical roots: the Judeo-Christian Bible. This chapter then is not about the evolution of commercial hospitality; it focuses on the hospitality phenomenon as it subsists within the monastic environment

Iranian hospitality: a hidden treasure

After making many field trips to the Islamic Republic of Iran Kevin O'Gorman reflects on the origins of Islamic and Iranian hospitality before highlighting some of the operational complexities of running the one of the highest hotels in the world