AMMAN —
Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA) latest statistics
on the number of visitors to Petra in January 2022 show a 220 percent increase
over the January 2021 figures.
اضافة اعلان
PDTRA Chief Commissioner Suleiman Farajat
told
Jordan News: “The data from the PDTRA shows that in January of this
year, 14,866 people of various nationalities visited Petra; of these, 10,742
were foreign visitors, 1,115 Arab visitors, and approximately 3,009 Jordanian
nationals. Compared to the 3,517 visitors in January 2021, the increase is
sizable.”
In December 2021, 33,338 tourists visited
iconic
Petra, a higher figure than that of January this year, which, Farajat
said, is a normal occurrence.
“The tourism season in Petra often sees good
numbers during September, October, and November, and then the number of
visitors typically begins to decrease slightly in December and January,” he
said, adding that tourism picks up in Petra by mid-February, “so we will find
out in the coming weeks if there are any signs of recovery”.
Farajat said he is forecasting a promising
year for tourism in Petra this year.
“I am optimistic that tourism numbers this
year will be up to our expectations. Petra is one of the world’s new seven
wonders, it is a unique place with a rich history. Quite simply, there is no
other place in the world like Petra,” he said.
In the recent past, tourists have been
coming mostly from Europe, particularly
Eastern Europe, he said, adding that
over 80 percent of the population in the Petra region “relies directly or
indirectly on tourism, so it is undoubtedly an important sector”.
Mahmoud Khasawneh, member of the board of
directors of the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents told
Jordan
News: “I do not find these latest statistics, which show an increase in
inbound tourism for January 2022 compared to that same month last year, very
surprising since for much of the beginning of 2021, there was almost no inbound
tourism at all. The tourism industry was largely closed between March 17, 2020,
and June 1, 2021, due to pandemic-related regulations at airports.”
Khasawneh suggested an alternative
comparison for Petra’s tourism numbers.
“A preferable way to show the real numbers
related to Petra tourism would be to compare the statistics on visits to Petra
in 2022 with the figures from 2019, because the latter year was a pre-pandemic
time period. There were over 1 million visitors to Petra alone in 2019.
That year was a great year for tourism in Jordan.”
Khasawneh said that since the entry fee per
foreign tourist is JD50, “inbound tourism can be quite lucrative for the
Kingdom”.
Commenting on the impact of
Omicron on Jordanian tourism, Khasawneh
said that “Jordan began to witness a slight recovery in tourism in June 2021,
but Omicron impacted the country’s tourism sector recovery plan.”
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