AMMAN — The Kingdom’s tourism industry appears to be surviving the ongoing regional turmoil with visitor numbers rising by 7.4 per cent in the first three quarters of this year, compared to the same period of 2005.

Preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Tourism show that a total 4.977 million tourists visited the country during the first nine months of this year, compared to 4.633 million visitors in the same period of last year.

The strongest surge is in Arab tourists, who once again topped the list of overall tourist arrivals at 3.756 million visitors.

They are followed by 465,734 visitors from European countries, 155,766 visitors from the Americas and 130,222 visitors from Asia.

According to the figures, Jordan has witnessed an increase in tourist arrivals from all continents, with Arab visitors rising by 6.3 per cent, European countries by 7.9 per cent and arrivals from the Americas up by 30.8 per cent.

Tourists arriving from Asia and the Pacific also rose by 9 per cent from 119,472 visitors in the first nine months of last year to 130,222 visitors in the same period of this year.

According to the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), the tourist traffic increased revenues by 8.2 per cent to JD869.6 million, from JD803.5 million during the first three quarters of last year.

Gulf visitors continue to top the list, despite a decline in tourists from Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

The largest flow came from Saudi Arabia, which rose 21.1 per cent to 954,082 visitors during the stated period.

They were followed by tourists from Kuwait, who despite having declined 24.7 per cent, reached a total of 117,953 visitors. Visitors from Bahrain totalled 72,334 tourists despite a 16.5 per cent decline.

While these numbers reflect healthy growth in tourist traffic, the industry nevertheless faced some backlashes from regional instabilities.

The Ministry of Tourism figures, for example, show a drop in package tours and visitors to various tourist sites around the Kingdom in the first nine months of this year.

According to the figures, package tours declined by 12.1 per cent with 192,055 holiday-makers compared to 218,520 tourists last year. The number of tourist nights spent by these visitors also dropped 19.1 per cent.

The drop was felt most in European package tours, which declined by 25.8 per cent.

The amount of time spent by European tourists in the Kingdom also dropped by 26.8 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Package tours from the Americas dropped by 74 per cent from 28,432 tourists in the first three quarters of this year, compared to 16,343 tourists in the equivalent period of 2005.

Visitors to tourist sites also dropped, with Jordanians and foreign tourist numbers dropping by 20.7 per cent from 1.595 million between January and September last year to 1.265 million this year. The number of foreign tourists dropped by 20.3 per cent during the same period.

Preliminary CBJ figures show that tourists spent JD333.9 million between January and September this year, compared to JD324.8 million in the same period of last year.

The largest tourism receipts were generated from Arab tourists which reached JD456.3 million, a 6.1 per cent increase from JD430 million in January and September last year.

Foreign tourists spent a total of JD245 million, a rise of 12.1 per cent from last year.

Back to December 29, 2006