AMMAN —
West Bank residents taking up an offer to travel through an Israeli airport will
harm Jordan’s tourism and flight industry, experts contended.
اضافة اعلان
Recently, Israel
said it plans to allow West Bank Palestinians to travel via an Israeli airport,
offering them an alternative to crossing the King Hussein Bridge into the
Kingdom.
For decades,
West Bank travelers used the King Hussein Bridge into Jordan, where they would
continue onward to their final destination.
The first
chartered flight for West Bank travelers is set to leave from
Ramon International Airport near Eilat, in southern Israel, later this month, The
Jerusalem Post reported last week.
The Israeli
decision sparked widespread dismay among aviation experts and tour operators
interviewed by
Jordan News, who contended that this will leave a negative
impact on the local tourism sector.
Fly Jordan CEO
Amjad Al-Maslamani said that “local airlines have relied for a long time on
transporting a large percentage of Palestinians to neighboring countries.”
“We have to preserve this market and not lose
it. Therefore the best solution, in this case, is to keep the bridge open all
the time to alleviate overcrowding,” he pointed out.
Mahmoud
Al-Awadi, owner of a tourism and travel office, said that “this decision
affects not only the tourism sector, but also the Jordanian economy in general
in view of the likelihood of lost revenues from a drop in bridge activities.”
“Palestinian
travelers constitute more than 35 percent of the tourism sector’s revenues,
especially from umra programs,” he added.
Jordan Aviation
CEO
Zuhair Al-Khashman said that “this decision will greatly affect the tourism
sector, as it will stop the movement of Palestinians travelling through Queen
Alia International Airport.”
He said that “it
will deprive Jordan from tax fees on tickets, which amount to 60 percent per
person. It will also deprive us of other tourist expenses.”
However,
President of Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association Awni Kawar insisted that
this decision “addresses the problem of overcrowding on the King Hussein
Bridge, and eases the suffering of travelers, especially with the recent
increase in travelers and the significant problems it has caused”.
“Despite the
negative impact it might have, I still see that the decision is positive in
general, because the problem of overcrowding is an issue that must be
addressed,” he pointed out.
Travelers
crossing from the West Bank through the King Hussein Bridge have been
complaining of overcrowding and chaotic scenes at the Jordanian side.
Last month,
Minister of Interior
Mazen Al-Farraya accused the Israeli side of being the
reason for overcrowding at the bridge because of its slow handling of traffic
on the other side of the bridge.
Jordan and the
Palestinian Authority want the bridge open around the clock. Israel, under US
pressure, is said to have agreed to keep the bridge open 24 hours a day as of
September.
Palestinian
travelers, however, said that the Jordanian side is creating difficulties as
well by having a limited number of immigration windows open to process entry
while there is no system for luggage handling.
Some passengers
claim to walk a long distance under a scorching sun to reach their ride to
Amman.
Reacting to the Israeli
decision, one travel expert, who requested anonymity, asked: “Why not turn the
King Hussein Bridge into a modern passenger terminal so that passengers can
pass through quickly and easily and maintain a preference to travel abroad
through Amman?”
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