Amman – Year-on-year, the number of tourists in Jordan picked up by 9.8%, to 531,806, as per official data revealed this Tuesday (6) by the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The information comes from the Jordanian news agency Petra.
Year-on-year, the number of overnight tourists in the country edged up by 7.1%, to 453,446. The ancient city of Petra, one of Jordan’s main attractions, welcomed 58,449 tourists, up 38.9% from a year ago.
Minister of Tourism Majd Shwaikeh said the growth was driven by robust marketing efforts abroad, high competitiveness of the local tourism sector, reduced power tariffs for hotels, visa fee waivers for tourists and the introduction of low-cost carriers in the Jordanian market.
Schwaikeh added that the sector needs more 5,000 workers per year, which indicates the need for professional training. He also mentioned that the lack of direct flights between Jordan and China is one of the main challenges for the industry.
Reserves
This Tuesday, the Central Bank of Jordan also reported that remittances of Jordanian expatriates reached JOD 24.1 million (USD 2.54 billion) in H1, a year-on-year 1.3% increase.
Jordan’s international reserves reached JOD 14 billion (USD 19.75 billion). Both tourism and expatriate’s remittances are importance sources of foreign currency for the country.
During a conference of expatriate Jordanian businessmen and investors (pictured) in Amman, Central Bank of Jordan president Zeyad Fareez said that the institution has a “funding window” of JOD 1.2 billion (USD 1.69 billion) to finance projects in tourism, industry, renewable energy, technology, health and others.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
