Tourist arrivals to Jordan from Israel have soared by 22 percent in the first seven months of this year, the Jordan Times reported Sunday.
Jordan's Minister of Tourism, Aqel Biltaji was quoted by the paper as saying that 90 percent of the tourists were Arab Israelis.
"The concept of one night [trips] has vanished. Why would anyone spend $90 for one night [only] in Petra, for example?" the minister said.
Asked whether the anti-normalization drive would affect tourism between Israel and Jordan, Biltaji said that 90 percent of Arab Israeli arrivals "tells you that we are normalizing with our own people. There are a million Arab Israelis in Israel. They make up 20 percent [of the population in Israel.”
"What we strive for now is peace through tourism...We want [Israelis] to know that we are more generous and rational than they think," Biltaji was quoted in Ad-Dustour on Saturday as saying.
"Anti-normalization has not affected tourism...I haven't felt as a tourism minister that it has had any effect," Biltaji told Ad-Dustour.
Meanwhile, the London-based Arabic daily “Asharaq Al Awsat,” quoted a tourist official as saying the overall tourism flow into Petra achieved an increase of 25 percent this year, compared to the same period in 1999.
“The present tourism season started well this year with the arrival of several groups of tourists from different parts of the world,” said Zaidoun Muheissen, head of Petra council – (Several Sources)
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