Tourism revenues climb by 9 per cent — CBJ

AMMAN — The Kingdom’s tourism revenues went up by 9 per cent by the end of September to $4.4 billion, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) announced on Monday.

The CBJ said that tourism revenues grew due to the increase in the total number of tourists by 7 per cent to 4.107 million visitors, when compared to the same period last year, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Tourism revenues in the January-September period of 2018 stood at some $4 billion, the CBJ noted.

On a monthly level, tourism revenues in September alone went up by 7.7 per cent to $486.9 million, when compared to the same month in 2018, the bank said, attributing the increase to the rise in the number of tourists by 6.7 per cent.

In 2018, tourism revenues surpassed the $5 billion mark, signifying an 8-per cent increase from 2017’s $4.6 billion.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in January said that the sector is continuing to achieve more gains, marked by a continuous rise in performance indicators, and that the ministry is moving forward within the Royal directives and with the government’s support towards scaling up tourism in the Kingdom to achieve its developmental goals and economic role.

According to ministry figures in January, the number of travel and tourism offices in the Kingdom stood at 904, and the number of tourist restaurants reached some 990 establishments, while the number of workers in the tourism sector amounted to 88,000.