AMMAN —
The number of participants in the Urdun Jannah, a program aiming to support
domestic tourism, has exceeded 130,000
since the beginning of this year, Al-Mamlaka TV reported.
اضافة اعلان
Yazan Al-Khudair,
the program’s director, said more than 3,500 sightseeing trips to various
governorates across Jordan had been organized.
Khudair, who is
also an assistant director-general of Visit Jordan, said that new destinations
have been added, such as Umm Al-Jimal, Iraq Al-Amir, Udhruh, Al-Shoubak, and
Maqamat Al-Sahaba.
The Ministry of
Tourism and Antiquities launched the Urdun Jannah program in May 2019, in
cooperation with the Tourism Promotion Authority.
Since then, it
continued to add tourist destinations to its services, although the program was
temporarily halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when stringent lockdown
measures confined residents to their homes to prevent the spread of the deadly
virus, which killed millions worldwide.
Khudair said that
Wadi Rum and Ajloun topped a list of popular destinations, being the two sites
most in demand by tourists and locals alike.
But he added that
there has been a recent increase in demand for trips to Umm Al-Jimal on the
outskirts of the capital city.
According to
program statistics, the number of trips to Umm Al-Jimal reached more than 7,000
for the first time since the start of the program.
Khaled Hijjawi, a
member of the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents, said that the Urdun
Jannah program operated out of 141 tourist offices, 60 restaurants, and 62
hotels and camps across the Kingdom.
Jordan has seen an
increase in the overall number of sightseers this year, which tourism officials
said exceeded the target numbers.
Minister of Tourism
and Antiquities Nayef Al-Fayez said the number of tourists reached 2.36 million
in the first quarter of this year, a 90 percent increase over the corresponding
period two years ago. He noted that the ministry had expected 1.9 million
tourists this year.
Fayez said data by
the Central Bank of Jordan showed that tourism generated JD1.9 billion in 2021,
a 90 percent increase over the previous year, when tourism revenue dwindled to
JD1 billion under COVID-19 restrictions.
In 2019, tourism revenue recorded JD4.1 billion, according
to data obtained from the Ministry of Tourism.
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