Recent statistics from Jordan’s tourism ministry state that the Kingdom’s tourism revenues dropped JOD220 million in 2015, which, according to an official, was mainly due to regional instability, as reported by Jordan Times.
Official figures on the tourism ministry’s website showed that tourism receipts went down from JOD3.1 billion in 2014 to JOD2.88 bn last year, a 7.1% decline. The Kingdom also witnessed a drop in number of overnight tourists by over 226,000, from 3.98 m to 3.76 m.
The figures also revealed that same day visitors to the Kingdom went down from 1.3 m to around one million. The overall number of visitors in 2015 which included overnight and same day tourist accounted for 4.8 m, while in 2014 it was 5.3 m.
Tohama Nabulsi, media and communications director at Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), blamed regional troubles for the drop in number of tourists despite attempts to promote the Kingdom as a secure and stable country.
“Foreign tourists, especially Europeans, look at the entire region as troubled. We try very hard to change this perception by trying to convince them Jordan is a safe and calm country, but they still believe it is not the right time to visit,” she added.
For 2016, Nabulsi said JTB will launch intensive campaigns targeting Arab tourists, particularly from the Gulf, as ‘they understand the region well’, adding that the promotion campaigns will be on TV channels and at shopping malls.
Statistics showed that visitors from Saudi Arabia topped the list of tourists to the Kingdom in 2015, despite a 16.4% drop over the year before. In 2015, over 883,000 visitors came to Jordan from Saudi Arabia as overnight tourists and same day visitors, while in 2014 their number was over one million, the figures showed. Visitors from Arab countries, according to the ministry, were around 2.5 m last year, down from 2.9 m.
Visitors from European countries went down by 20.5%, last year to 510,000 from 642,000, according to figures, which showed that number of visitors from the US increased, reaching over 161,000 compared to around 160,000 in 2014. Number of tourists from China also saw an increase of around 16% last year, to over 23,000 from around 20,000 the year before. Around 234,000 Asian visitors came to Jordan last year, 16% lower than the 279,000 visitors in 2014.
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