Historical giants: forefathers of modern hospitality and tourism.

Abstract

AbstractExploring the contribution made by eight great 'giants', dating from 1810 BC to AD 1629, this chapter highlights some significant contributions to tourism's antiquity and evolution. The chapter starts with Hammurabi of Babylon who, approximately 4000 years ago, established a legal code that protected travellers and began to regulate the commercial hospitality industry. The contributions of Iphitos, one of the many mythical founders of the Olympic Games, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, famous for his travel accounts, and Plato, who stratified the treatment a guest should receive in a host city, are then explored. The commercial hospitality and tourism industry is examined during the reign of Hadrian when the Roman Empire (AD 117) controlled approximately 6 million km2 of land, and the Roman citizen could travel throughout the Empire and be protected by one legal system, speak one administrative language and needed only one currency. Also examined is the contribution, after the decline of the Roman Empire, of St Benedict who codified large-scale hospitality and the provision of accommodation in the monastic guest house, and created a remarkable parallel to the modern-day hotel. Finally, the roles of Hugues de Payens, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who provided the equivalent of a Europe-wide banking system for pilgrims travelling across Europe and the Near East, and of Shah 'Abbas I of Persia, who established a comprehensive system of caravanserais all across his empire and throughout the Islamic world which provided hospitality and care for travellers both pilgrims and strangers, are investigated.