AMMAN –– At least 100,000 workers in
the tourism industry have lost their jobs, a leading member of the Lower House
said on Tuesday.
Salem Omari, rapporteur of the
Tourism and Antiquities Committee at the Lower House estimated said the figure
includes workers in the tourism sector and supporting industries who have lost
their jobs or source of income due to the pandemic. The government and Central
Bank of Jordan, he said, have tried to help these workers through certain
plans, but the length of the pandemic has made this very difficult.
اضافة اعلان
Omari added that the tourism sector,
which broadly includes hotels, tourist transportation, souvenir shops and
restaurants, was the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that most
of these industries have now almost completely shut down, with only a very few
remaining open.
The latest official figures released
by the Central Bank show that the sector’s revenues dropped by 70 per cent in
the first eight months of 2020, five months into the pandemic.
Daoud Samman, a tour guide and a
member of the Jordan Tour Guides Association (JTGA) told Jordan News over
the phone that around 1,300 tour guides in Jordan are currently unemployed.
“The entire tourism sector has been affected by the pandemic, not just tour
guides,” Samman said.
A Jordanian hotel owner and sector
leader, Mohammad Al-Qassem, estimated his losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic
at 98% during the past year, caused particularly by the nation-wide lockdowns,
closure of the air and land ports and the subsequent decline in inbound
tourism. He explained that most of his customers are from Gulf countries who
used to flock to Jordan for medical tourism or vacations, including expats coming
to visit their families and staying in hotels. Eight of his employees, or 90
percent of the workforce at his hotel, were laid off as a result.
Although the government has not officially
closed down the tourism sector, the longer curfew hours and lockdown have had their
toll on the industry, which contributes 12-14 percent of GDP.
“We are currently calling for reducing
the curfew hours and allowing people to work for longer hours, and to step up
the vaccination drive,” Omari said in a phone interview. He believes that the
increased and swift administration of the ongoing vaccination campaign is the
solution to the huge losses that have hit the tourism sector the COVID-19
pandemic has resulted in.
The sharp drop in the number of
visitors to Petra and its surrounding areas has caused many workers in the
tourism sector in the historic site of Petra such to lose their sources of
income, namely, unlicensed tour guides and transportation workers who are not registered
with the Social Security Corporation.
According to Chief Commissioner at
the Petra Development & Tourism Region Authority Bashar Farajat, the
pandemic has shed light on workers in the tourism industry who are uninsured
and thus are unable to benefit from the support plans put forward to aid them
in these difficult times.
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