Campaign to promote domestic tourism under way, follows Aqaba example

AMMAN — Sector stakeholders recently launched a campaign to promote domestic tourism in an attempt to increase the number of visitors to tourist attractions and boost hotel occupancy rates, but hoteliers are not optimistic the initiative will rescue the industry.  

Tohama Nabulsi, the director of media and communication at the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), said the campaign, launched by the Tourism Ministry in cooperation with the private sector, will stimulate travel within the Kingdom.

Since the start of the campaign some two weeks ago, around 5,900 hotel reservations or inquiries have been recorded, she said. 

“It is a big figure,” Nabulsi told The Jordan Times over the phone, noting that the promotion package targets the Dead Sea and Petra among other historical sites. 

Citing the successful initiative launched by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority earlier this year to promote the port city as an “inexpensive” tourist destination, she said the JTB supports the campaign in an attempt to offer Jordanians affordable hotel stays and cheap transportation. 

The campaign, which will last till the summer, includes packages with discounted hotel rates and transport fares.

However, Yassar Al Majali, general manager of the Jordan Hotel Association (JHA), had doubts that such campaigns would revive the tourism industry. 

He said the key to stimulate domestic and international tourism is to reduce taxes on hotels and lower electricity prices, which represent “around 40 per cent” of hotels’ operational costs. 

“Even if hotels lower prices, it is still beyond the income of the majority of households,” Majali told The Jordan Times. 

The tourism sector has been facing “huge” challenges over the past few years due to regional turmoil and government policies, the director of JHA said, adding that several hotels in Petra, which is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, have closed down due to low occupancy rates. 

The drop in the number of tourists registered by hotels in 2014 exceeds 40 per cent when compared with the previous year, according to Majali, who said if policy makers do not work on lowering taxes on hotel stay and airline tickets, the Kingdom will not be able to compete with regional tourist destinations, such as Dubai.

He said hotel occupancy stood at around 20 per cent since the start of the year, while it is 15 per cent in Petra. 

In order for hotels to survive the occupancy rate should at least be around 60 per cent, Majali indicated.