Tourism figures during 2017 higher than expected — minister

AMMAN — The total number of tourists who visited Jordan between January and the end of November increased by 8.9 per cent compared with the same period of last year, Tourism Minister Lina Annab said on  Wednesday.

"The indicators of the tourism sector in the Kingdom have exceeded all expectations of the World Tourism Organisation [WTO] for the Middle East and North Africa," Annab told The Jordan Times.

The WTO's figures have indicated a 4 per cent drop in tourists' numbers in the region, but Jordan witnessed a hike instead, the minister said.

She emphasized that the increase is attributed to the major changes made by the ministry and other stakeholders to promote Jordan as a diverse destination, which helped to mitigate the impact of regional crises.

Annab said that "the number of tourists has begun to drop since 2010 as a result of the regional turmoil; however, the diversity in Jordanian destinations as a place for archaeological, religious, medical, adventure and conferences purposes has helped the Kingdom to address the drop".

During this period, the number of European tourists plummeted while tourists coming for religious and medical purposes have bridged the gap, according to the minister.

The number of overnight tourists until the end of November increased by 9.5 per cent, reaching 3.911 million visitors, compared to 3.574 during the same period of last year, the ministry's figures showed.

Meanwhile, the number of one-day visitors during the first 11 months of this year increased by 6.4 per cent in comparison to the same period in 2016, recording 910.363 visitors, compared to 855.235 last year, Annab noted.

The Tourism Minister expects that the figures will keep increasing next year, adding that that ministry will intensify its promotion campaigns to attract more tourists in cooperation with all stakeholders.

For his part, Jordan Tourism Board Director General Abdul Razzaq Arabiyat stressed that the Central Bank of Jordan's tourism indicators have shown improvement that reflects the efforts of the board in "placing Jordan on the world's tourism map" despite the regional turmoil and the economic challenges facing the Kingdom.