[Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to the evolving situation in the Middle East]
Years before purpose-driven, conscious travel was having the moment it is now, Muna Haddad was already speaking about the need to change who gets to tell the story of a place on a global stage. With nearly two decades spent developing sustainable tourism projects in Europe and the Middle East, the Jordanian native recognised early on the power imbalance that exists in many destinations, where local communities are rarely the ones fully owning the experience, the narrative, and the benefits of engaging with tourists.
It’s exactly why Haddad started Baraka Destinations: to enable the country’s artisans and micro-entrepreneurs, rather than expatriates, to lead their own communities’ tourism initiatives. Baraka focuses on Jordan’s secondary locations – ‘the forgotten places’ – while relieving pressure from often over-touristed sites like Petra, the Nabataean city that hosted a record 1.2 million people in 2023. For her first project in Jordan’s northernmost village, Umm Qais, Haddad sat down with 60 local households and asked them to share their stories of the place. That process became the foundation for Beit al Baraka, a community hub offering home-cooked meals, activities like wild seed propagation or cycling, and accommodations in a six-bedroom house overlooking Lebanon, Syria, and the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Prior to Baraka’s work, travellers would often spend only a couple of hours in Umm Qais, solely focusing on its Roman-era ruins. Now, Beit al Baraka guests stay for several days, engaging with residents like Yousef Sayyah, a local beekeeper who introduces guests to his hives and teaches about the area’s biodiversity. Baraka recently became a G Adventures partner, with multi-day stays in Umm Qais now offered as part of the company’s Active Jordan itinerary.
Intent on addressing tourism leakage, a common problem worldwide in which the majority of tourism income doesn’t stay with the actual destination, Baraka keeps 73 per cent of revenue from across its projects within the communities that it partners with. The organisation invests in local micro-entrepreneurs, then passes the project ownership to them within three to five years. “People of the place should be driving the business forward,” Haddad explains. But there is a deeper purpose. By asking Who gets to tell the story of a place? Baraka is highlighting the typically unheard voices carrying memories of a region. “Travel is a tool for validation,” says Haddad. The mandate is unambiguous: Baraka means ‘blessing’ in Arabic.
This year, Haddad is launching a new walking tour in Jordan’s capital, Amman. The four-hour experience traces Amman’s evolution from the late Ottoman period to the present day through the memories and voices of the city’s residents, and is based on eight months of rigorous research and interviews with former Prime Ministers, members of the Royal Family, artists, architects, elders, migrants, historians, third-generation coffee roasters, former mayors of Amman, anthropologists, and long-standing merchants. “You cannot manufacture authenticity; it’s about making space for the stories to emerge,” says Haddad. “It’s time for more depth in tourism storytelling, more intention behind which stories get told, why, and by whom.” Yulia Denisyuk
Maggie Kang
