AMMAN —
Jordan’s tourism sector is recovering, based on airline ticket sales and hotel
occupancy rates in the first quarter of 2022, Director-General of the Jordan
Tourism Board (JTB) Abdul Razzaq Arabiyat said, according to the Jordan News
Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
A press statement
Thursday said the tourism sector is the “main” catalyst of many activities and
businesses and a “major” source of hard currency.
Arabiyat said the
rate of hotel room reservations in the rose-red city of Petra is forecast to
reach 100 percent between next September and November.
Speaking at a
media forum organized by the Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists
(CDFJ), Arabiyat said JTB’s budget is JD71 million. He said that Jordan enjoys
climatic diversity and availability of tourists and archaeological sites,
foremost are Petra, Jerash, the Baptism Site, and the Dead Sea.
Arabiyat contended
that religious tourism in Jordan is “important”, especially since
Christianity’s roots lie in Jordan, and the Kingdom has key attractions,
including the Baptism Site. He stressed that the lack of accommodation, pit
stops, proper sanitation facilities, and souvenir shops, in addition to the
expensive entry tickets to the attractions, are reasons why these religious
sites are not regularly visited.
He contended that
any religious pilgrimage site can expect around 7 million visitors annually — a
number that neither Jordan’s infrastructure nor its facilities can bear. “We
will open the Baptism Site once this issue is addressed,” he said, adding that
the visitor’s center had been completed and the service quality there is
considered good.
Arabiyat pointed
out that nobody bans religious tourism, but there are cultural, social,
religious, and political considerations in Jordan must be taken into account.
He stressed that
performing rituals at religious shrines is “prohibited and provocations on
religious and social basis are not allowed”, in reference to Shiite Muslims,
who once practiced religious rituals in southern Jordan.
Arabiyat said that
while the private sector is able to run Jordan’s tourism sites than the public
sector, but that investment is weak due to the volatility of investment-related
legislation in the sector.
The most important
challenge facing Jordan’s tourism sector is that 90 percent of tourists from
Europe resort to low-cost travel and flights, he noted.
Tourists coming to
Jordan pay a tax at the airport, estimated at JD40–50, he noted. He said that
the government has decided to cancel landing taxes at Marka International
Airport (MIA) and Aqaba King Hussein International Airport, in support of
tourism. He said the government is contemplating plans to license MIA as an
international airport.
On steps to
support the tourism sectors, he said the tax has been reduced from 16 to 8
percent, and that the Cabinet will treat any tourist enterprise, regardless of
its location or type, as a business in Jordan’s development zones, in terms of
exemptions.
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