The Kingdom’s tourism sector showed signs of recovery in the first six months of 2012 after a year of decline in both revenues and visitor numbers, Minister of Tourism Nayef Fayez said on Wednesday. In a press conference, Fayez added that revenues generated by the sector in the January-June period stood at JD1.207 billion: a 19 percent increase from JD1.011 billion in the same period last year. Moreover, he said, although visitor numbers continued to fall in the January-June period, they rebounded by 8 percent last month and the number of reservations is growing for the upcoming tourism season that starts in September.
The total number of visitors in the first six months dropped 3 percent from 3,182,000 in 2011 to 3,083,000 this year, ministry figures showed, but some 586,000 tourists came to the country in June this year, compared to 541,000 in June 2011. Fayez noted that the rising number of visitors from the Gulf States contributed to this “improvement” in number of total arrivals. Approximately 66,092 overnight tourists from the Gulf countries came to Jordan last month, 40.9 percent more than in June last year, when their numbers stood at 46,904. Tourism ministry figures also indicated that the number of overnight visitors from Africa grew by 66.5 percent in June from 1,089 to 1,812, and by 31.8 percent in the first six months from 7,591 to 10,002, but their numbers remain far below where they were in 2010, when over 400,000 visited in the same period.
The June figures also showed a 23 percent increase in visitors coming from the US and Latin America. Revenues generated in June also rose by 40 percent, according to the ministry’s monthly report, which indicated that receipts last month reached JD227 million, compared to JD162 million in June 2011. Meanwhile, Fayez announced that the ministry will revisit the 2010-2015 National Tourism Strategy after the difficulties caused by the regional turmoil last year.
The five-year strategy aims at increasing tourism receipts to JD4.2 billion in 2015. He also noted that the ministry, in cooperation with other industry partners, is still working on promoting domestic tourism and to that end will hold festivals across the Kingdom’s governorates until the end of this year.
