Petra welcomed 905,000 visitors in 2022 — PDTRA

AMMAN — Approximately 905,000 tourists visited Petra in 2022, the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA) said on Sunday, noting that the city has recovered from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PDTRA said that 905,402 tourists visited the rose-red city last year, including 638,592 non-Arabs, 33,303 non-Jordanian Arabs and 99,880 Jordanians, in addition to 84,584 visitors as part of Urdun Janna programme and 4,043 official guests and children who are exempted from entry fees, Al Mamlaka TV reported.

The statistics also indicated a “significant rise” in visitors to the Archaeological Museum, which totalled 170,869 visitors.

The number of visitors to the archaeological city increased by 284 per cent compared with figures from 2021, and 233 per cent compared with 2020 visitors, according to the PDTRA statistics.

According to Chairman of PDTRA Board of Commissioners Suleiman Farajat, the growth in the number of visitors means that the city has reached the recovery stage of COVID-19 pandemic.

Visitors to Petra this year equal around 80 per cent of the number of visitors to the city in 2019. Recent numbers have been affected by the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and other circumstances, most notably the recent floods in the area, Farajat said.

Tourism recovery in Petra has coincided with the start of several major projects, such as the cultural village and the activation of the tourism transport system, and the continued organisation of the archaeological site, he said.

The chairman added that the authority cooperates with all partners to ensure that Petra takes its share of global tourism, noting that continued recovery means that 2023 will rival 2019, which witnessed around one million guests for the first time in Petra’s history. Farajat expressed his hope that visitors to the city will surpass this figure in 2023.