JORDAN WOOING BACK FOREIGN TOURISTS
Kingdom of nearly 10 million depends on tourism receipts for around 12 per cent of its gross domestic product
WITH its rock-hewn ancient city of Petra, lunar-like landscape of Wadi Rum and a medical tourism drive, Jordan is luring back foreign visitors scared off by regional upheaval and jihadist attacks.
Abundant natural wonders and ancient treasures have long attracted tourists to the kingdom, traditionally seen as a haven of peace in a war-ravaged region.
But after the Arab Spring uprisings convulsed the Middle East in 2011 and the Islamic State later rampaged across neighbouring Syria and Iraq, visitor numbers slumped.
Jordan welcomed seven million tourists in 2010, but arrivals plunged to around three million in each of the following two years, according to tourism board head Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat.
Efforts to reverse the slide suffered a major setback in 2016 with a string of attacks in the kingdom, a member of the US-led alliance against IS.
A Canadian tourist was among 10 people killed in a shooting rampage claimed by the jihadists in Karak.
But the spillover from the Syrian conflict has since abated and last year tourist arrivals rebounded to more than four million, officials say.
“Jordan has proved to be a safe haven in a region which is witnessing turmoil,” said Tourism Minister Lina Mazhar Annab.
Today Jordan’s historical jewels are a major draw. It boasts 21,000 archaeological and historical sites that span millennia, according to the tourism board.
They include the Roman ruins of Jerash, the Dead Sea and Wadi al-Kharrar where some historians believe Jesus was baptised.
Such sites are helping to attract a growing number of tourists from Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, China and India, according to the authorities.
Lacking in natural resources, the country of nearly 10 million depends on tourism for around 12 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
In an attempt to diversify, the kingdom has sought to become a regional hub of medical tourism.
“Between 250,000 and 300,000 foreign patients are admitted in Jordan each year, bringing in up to US$1.5 billion (RM5.88 billion),” said the president of the country’s Private Hospitals Association, Fawzi alHammouri. Medical tourism now directly employs 35,000 people in Jordan, according to Hammouri.
The majority of patients come from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
Jordan is also a stop for Muslim pilgrims visiting holy sites in the region. And now the kingdom hopes to woo more European visitors thanks to an agreement struck in February with low-cost airline Ryanair for 14 new routes between Europe and Jordan.