Regional fighting leaves Jordan battling to save tourism sector
Visitor numbers slump and revenues take a significant hit
AMMAN // Jordan is turning to contingency measures to try to revive its tourism industry, which is suffering because of the raging violence in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. Revenue from tourism was down 15 per cent on last year’s figures during the first four months of this year. Tourism minister Nayef Al Fayez said the drop in visitor numbers was owing to a lack of understanding about Jordan and not being aware that the country was not in conflict.
It was “the absence among visitors of visibility on the situation in Jordan”, he said.
Tourism last year contributed 14 per cent of the kingdom’s GDP, to the sum of US$ 4.4billion (Dh16.16bn) but the flow of visitors is slowing down significantly.
“For three days I haven’t had a tourist come in here,” said 30-year-old Mohammed at his souvenir shop in central Amman. “Each year seems to be worse than the last.” The Hashemite kingdom has no shortage of acclaimed wonders, natural and manmade. Its rose-pink, rock-hewn city of Petra is one of the seven wonders of the world and the Roman ruins at Jerash in the north of the country, near the border with Syria, are among the region’s most impressive. The desert at Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea have always figured high on the list of the country’s natural attractions. Until recent years, such sites attracted hundreds of thousands of western tourists but now visitors are being frightened off by regional unrest after the 2011 Arab Spring.
The country’s tourism office has come up with an emergency plan to raise Jordan’s international profile and will target it at, in particular, the countries of the Arabian Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It also wants to take in new markets.
Turkey and the Far East – including China, Japan and South Korea – will also be approached with the hope of improving visitor numbers from next year.
“There’s no magic wand we can wave to fix things in a few weeks,” Mr Al Fayez said.