AMMAN — Following the recent easing of measures
taken in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the number of tourists visiting
Madaba Governorate has seen a "steady increase".
اضافة اعلان
In March alone, 30,785 people visited the governorate,
whereas 51,208 tourists have visited since the beginning of this year.
Madaba, which has been designated the Arab
tourism capital for the year 2022, has tourist and
archaeological landmarks, pilgrimage routes and sites, and offers religious and
medical tourism.
The
Jordan Tourism Board works to promote
tourism in Madaba by capitalizing on its unique religious tourism component,
attracting pioneering investment projects in a variety of fields, and investing
in the city's unique natural, cultural, and religious resources, while
increasing job opportunities and reducing unemployment, JTB General Director Abed
Al Razzaq Arabiyat told
Jordan News.
“The JTB wants to make
Madaba a center for
cultural and religious heritage, as well as a home for mosaics and handicrafts
in the Kingdom,” he said, adding that “Madaba is a city with a lot of history,
archaeological, and religious monuments, as well as beautiful natural
landscapes like valleys and mountains”.
As part of its work to put Jordan on the map as
a popular tourism destination, the JTB implemented the "Urdonna
Jannah" program, which helped revitalize domestic tourism in Madaba by
organizing tourist tours and daily trips for citizens, on buses prepared for
this purpose.
"The governorate of Madaba witnessed the
presence of numerous and large groups of foreign tourists,” which helped
increase hotel occupancy rates, Chairman of the
Jordan Hotels association Abdul
Hakeem Al-Hindi said, adding that such visits "will expand job
opportunities and reduce unemployment".
"The primary concern at the moment is to
recover from the pandemic losses, which, according to studies and predictions,
will take at least three years. Hotels are committed to paying their bills on
time,” he said.
Member of the
Tourist Guides Association Osama
Twal agreed that the increase in the number of tourists is real and beneficial,
noting that Mount Nebo is attracting more visitors than other tourist
attractions in Madaba, like, "for example, the Madaba Archaeological Park,
one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Jordan, which includes the
Mosaic Museum, the Burning Palace, and the Church of the Apostles”.
He added that approximately 6 to 7 percent of tourists
to Madaba usually visit the Madaba Mosaic Map, part
of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine Church of
Saint George.
Twal said that the "JD3 admission fee can
be reduced or divided into three parts for the purpose of promoting tourism".
He also said that officials should establish a special office for tour guides
in Madaba, at the Madaba Visitors Center, in order to improve the guides'
working conditions by making them similar to those in the capital and
neighboring governorates.
Wael Jainini, director of
Madaba Tourism, said
on Al-Mamlaka TV that there are positive indications that tourism will return
to its pre-corona pandemic levels, noting that the Mount Nebo site attracted
the highest number of tourists.
The number of tourists is expected to grow
significantly this month as well, he said, adding that other tourist destinations
have also seen an increase in the number of visitors since the start of the
year.
The Madaba Mosaic map at St. George church received 35,156 visitors, the Madaba Visitor Center received
16,363 visitors, the
Dead Sea Panorama received 9,269 visitors, and the Mukawar
Historic Site received 719 visitors so far this year.
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