AMMAN — President of the
Jordan Hotel Association
Abdel Hakim Al-Hindi said 90 percent of the hotel reservations for the month of
February are cancelled, because Jordan was classified as a red country.
اضافة اعلان
“We call on the government to reconsider publishing
the number of cases daily, and rather, make public only the number of cases
that are admitted to hospitals, so that people not be overwhelmed by fear,”
said Hindi.
“We also hope that the government will cancel the
mandatory PCR examination for tourists from abroad, and rely only on
vaccination certificates,” he added.
Reservations for the month of April, or the
beginning of spring, which coincides this year with the Holy Month of Ramadan,
“are usually low”, said Hindi, adding that “we hope that COVID-19 cases will
decrease after that, so tourists can come to Jordan”.
Hindi also said that there are no specific numbers
so far for the month of May, and that the association is counting on the second
half of 2022, hoping that it will witness exceptionally high occupancy rates,
to compensate the losses the hospitality industry incurred during the first
half of the year.
According to Hindi, after the defense order obliging
parties and weddings attendees to conduct a
PCR test beforehand was issued, all
hotel reservations were cancelled.
“The association met with several parties in an
attempt to overcome the obstacles facing the hotel sector during the current
difficult circumstances, since the sector is unable to continue functioning in
light of the significant losses it has incurred since the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic,” said Hindi.
Mahmood Al-Awadi, owner of a travel agency, told
Jordan
News that the mandatory PCR examination for tourists coming to Jordan
contributed to worsening the situation of the tourism sector.
“Tourists would have to conduct more than three PCR
examinations in order to come to Jordan, and this would cost them a lot, and
not all tourists may be able to bear all the costs,” he said.
Awadi added that the government decisions and the
epidemiological situation played an important role in worsening the situation
as well, as “tourists might be afraid to come to a country that registers
thousands of COVID-19 cases every day”.
He also said that the workers in the tourism sector
have been really hard hit and the situation is expected to worsen in the next
months, yet, “the government did not support us, despite the fact that it
surely knows how bad our situation is and how much we suffered”.
Tour guide Daoud Samaan told
Jordan News that
many of those who work in the tourism sector have gone broke and will not be
able to make money again unless the sector witnesses huge improvement, “which
will not happen anytime soon, I believe”.
“Instead of improving, the situation is getting even
worse by the day, especially in light of the increase in the number of COVID-19
cases and the restrictions resulting from this increase,” he said.
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