Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
4.5m visitors registered between January, August
By Dalya Dajani
AMMAN - The tourism industry is faring well this year with visitor arrivals up
6.4 per cent during the first eight months of 2007 compared to the same period
of last year, official statistics revealed Sunday.
Preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Tourism showed that around 4.556
million tourists visited the Kingdom between January and August compared to
4.280 million during the first eight months of 2006.
The number of overnight visitors rose 5.7 per cent to 2.246 million from 2.126
million, while same-day visitors rose 7.2 per cent to 2.310 million from 2.154
in the same comparative period, according to the figures.
Arab and Gulf tourists again constituted the largest segment of arrivals between
January and August, totalling 1.305 million, followed by 374,397 from Europe and
118,747 from the US.
Tourists from Arab countries were 3.4 per cent higher than last year, while
those from Europe and the US were 35.3 per cent and 2.4 per cent higher
respectively.
Arrivals from East Asia and the Pacific also increased 4.4 per cent this year,
to 62,584 visitors compared to 59,931 in the same period of last year.
Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) Deputy Managing Director Fayez Khoury said the
tourism industry’s performance was promising so far this year.
“The extensive marketing efforts and activities exerted over the past year have
panned out positively for the industry so far,” said Khoury.
“Figures reported by the Jordan Inbound Tourism Operators Association and the
Jordan Hotel Association also show excellent bookings at hotels this season,
which is expected to grow further until the end of this year,” he added.
The JTB official told The Jordan Times that while the Kingdom continues to focus
on strategic markets in Europe, Russia and the US, new markets are being tapped
for their potential.
Khoury said some of these efforts are focused on enhancing tourist traffic
aboard chartered flights from the UK, Sweden, Germany and Poland.
He said an official delegation of tourism representatives just returned from a
tourism and travel exhibition in Warsaw this week where such efforts were
stepped up with a new plan by Royal Wings to double back-to-back chartered
flights from Warsaw to Jordan twice a week.
According to the Central Bank of Jordan, tourism receipts totalled JD841 million
during the first eight months of this year, an increase of 12.2 per cent from
JD750 million during the first eight months of 2006.
Tour and travel agents
For several tour and travel agencies in the Kingdom, business has been generally
positive.
One travel agent, whose company brought nearly 100 package tour groups to the
country from the US, South America, South Africa and Europe since the beginning
of this year, said business was “favourable” and tourist traffic flow has been
rising steadily.
“There’s been greater demand from American tourists for pilgrimage tours to the
region,” the company official said.
“Most of them spend two days in the Kingdom visiting religious sites such as
Mount Nebo and the Baptism Site before heading to the Holy Land,” he added.
He told The Jordan Times he had booked 20 more package tours until the end of
the year.
Business has also been positive for another travel agent, with four tour groups,
each averaging between 10 -25 persons, arriving from Holland and three groups
from the US this year.
But not all agencies are doing well.
One travel agent claimed that sales have fallen dramatically.
Tourism Manager at Jordan National Tours Emad Awwad said the increasing prices
of hotels and air tickets have affected his business substantially this year.
“We had heavy incoming tourist traffic from Mexico, America, Italy, Spain and
Belarus several years ago, but it dropped significantly,” said Awwad.
“We only had 25 individual tourists in May,” he added.
According to Awwad, between 2002 and 2004 a package tour for seven days and six
nights in the country without an air ticket would cost $500 per person. Now it
is up to $700 with the increase in hotel tariffs and entry fees to tourist
sites.
However, things are looking better for Awwad under a new deal with a tourist
company in the US that will bring up to 15 Americans to the Kingdom once every
two weeks for a four-day three-night trip, covering Amman, Jerash, Petra, the
Dead Sea and Aqaba.