Jordan Times
Sunday, January 24, 1999
Number of tourists rise by 13.13 per cent
Amman (J.T.)— THE NUMBER of tourists visiting Jordan from January until November of 1998 increased by 13.13 per cent as the total reached 1,189,216 persons compared to 1,051,199 persons during the same period in 1997, according to statistics obtained from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Tourists coming from European countries, the Americas and other countries accounted for 28.55 per cent of the total, a drop of 7.53 per cent from the level reached in 1997. Tourists coming from the Arab Gulf states accounted for 61.97 per cent and from Israel 9.48 per cent.
The statistics revealed that income from tourism during the first ten months of 1998 amounted to JD461.6 million, 9.9 per cent more than the JD419.9 million earned during the same period of 1997. Jordanians, meanwhile, were estimated to have spent around JD245.2 million between January and November of last year, 14.2 per cent higher than the amount spent in the first 10 months of 1997. The spending covered tourism, medical and educational expenses.
The aforementioned figures work out into a surplus of JD216.4 million from tourism during the first ten months of 1998. The tourism income for the whole of 1997 amounted to JD548.8 million which represent 11 per cent of the gross domestic product for that year.
A breakdown by the port of entry, the statistics showed that 81.8 per cent of the visitors or 973,404 persons arrived by land. Most were Gulf Arabs who accounted for 70.2 per cent of those who came by land. Israelis came in second place (11.4 per cent) and the remaining 10.2 per cent were Europeans.
Arrivals by aircraft totalled 190,136 or 16 per cent of the overall number of tourists. Europeans accounted for 48.5 per cent of the tourists who came through the airports. Tourists from the Arab Gulf ranked second with a 24.5 per cent and third were the Americas with 20.19 per cent.
Only 2.2 per cent of all the tourists, or 25,676 visitors, came by sea. Most of the arrivals in this category were from Europe (48.2 per cent) followed by Arab Gulf states and the Americas for 26.1 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. The remaining 11.6 per cent were from other countries.
Geographically, tourists from the Americas represented 8.52 per cent of the total number of tourists. Most of the tourists came from the United States which accounted for 89.71 per cent or 81,760 tourists. Canadians represented 11.70 per cent of the America tourists or 11,853 persons. The U.S. and Canadian numbers were 2.83 per cent and 8.83 per cent respectively, higher than the numbers recorded in 1997. Overall, the total number of tourists from the Americas was 101,297 persons during the first ten months of last year compared to 99,675 persons during the same period of 1997, an increase of 1.63 per cent.
The number of tourists coming from European countries declined by 8.01 per cent from 222,180 persons during the first ten months of 1997 to 204,377 persons during the same period of last year. They, however, accounted for 17.19 per cent of the total number of tourists. The number of visitors from Poland, Spain, Italy and Sweden increased last year by 52.89 per cent, 32.10 per cent, 8.65 per cent and 5.84 per cent respectively, but the number of tourists from Germany, Austria, Britain and France dropped by 29.83 per cent, 28.50 per cent, 16.24 per cent and 1.30 per cent respectively.