Jordan Times
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Petra Q1 visitors
generate JD1 million in tourism receipts
Around 100,000 tourists visited the rose-red city during the first three months
of this year
By Dalya Dajani
AMMAN — The ancient Nabataean city of Petra continues to be one of the Kingdom's
leading tourist attractions with around 100,000 visitors flocking to the site
during the first quarter of this year.
Malek Amarat, head of the Tourism Department in Petra, said the site witnessed a
revival of visitors in the first three months of this year — mostly European,
Arab and local.
Tourist numbers during the first quarter constituted around 35 per cent of total
arrivals during 2004, according to Amarat.
“There's been a tangible increase in tourist activity in Petra since the
beginning of this year, particularly from countries such as Spain, France and
Germany,” Amarat told The Jordan Time on Saturday.
“We also continue to see, though to a smaller extent, Arab tourists as well as
Jordanians on school or university tours,” he added.
The official said visitors to the rose-red city generated approximately JD1
million in tourism receipts in the first three months of this year.
Aside from regular day tours, the city has also become a popular destination for
tourists wishing to visit “Petra by Night.”
Amarat described the programme as being particularly popular among European
visitors.
The tour, which begins at the Petra Visitor's Centre at around 8.30pm, takes
visitors on a tour along a candle-lit path leading to the Treasury.
At the Treasury, tea is served while guides recount tales of the lives and
history of the local community to the accompaniment of soft “oud” music.
Such heightened tourism activity is good news for hotel owners and local
community businesses that have been struggling since the Sept. 11 tourism slump.
Petra hotels, left financially crippled by the subsequent drop in tourist
arrivals, recuperated some of their losses last year through a
government-sponsored subsidised room-rate scheme that drew hundreds of
Jordanians to the historical site.
The government also stepped in to defuse the debt-repayment issue surrounding 12
Petra and Wadi Musa hotels by agreeing to defray part of the interest these
hotels owe on bank loans from July 2002.
Amarat said the increase in tourists during the first quarter of this year
presented a positive forecast for the local community.
Tourism activity in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba was also booming last week,
according to officials.
Aqaba Governor Khalid Awadallah said around 30,000 Jordanians visited the port
city over the weekend, with most hotels in the area announcing full occupancy.
Aside from the usual influx of local vacationers taking advantage of the
three-day holiday weekend, Aqaba continues to bustle with European visitors on
weekly package tours to the Kingdom.
These include Hungarians, British and Russian tourists arriving on weekly or
biweekly chartered flights.