Jordan Tourism Board celebrates another year of record achievements

The Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) is celebrating yet another landmark year marked by record tourist numbers and receipts.

Recent figures released by the Ministry of Tourism and the Jordan Central Bank have shown a continued upward trend and an increasing interest in the Kingdom as a major international tourism destination.

Tourist arrival and spending figures for the first 11 months of the year have surpassed the related totals for the entire of 2009.

Overnight arrivals (January to November 2010) have totaled almost 4.3 million people compared with almost 3.8 for the whole of 2009. The total for 2010 is expected to rise significantly by the end of the year holidays.

JTB Managing Director Nayef al-Fayez expressed pleasure at the released figures and said they are an embodiment of the increasing importance of Jordan as a popular destination for a wide and diverse spectrum of tourist interests. He said “there was an across-the-board increase in tourist numbers covering the five continents, and was reflected by comprehensive increases in all main sites and destinations within Jordan.”

In his remarks on the released figures, Mr. al-Fayez expressed pride in the achievements of the Jordan Tourism Board, which had worked over the past two years under the heavy pressures of the global financial crisis and an unavoidable cut in its budget. He said “I would like to thank everyone at the Jordan Tourism Board for their hard work which was the main driver behind such achievements and which kept Jordan high up on the global tourism map.”

The remarks by Mr. Nayef al-Fayez came as the Jordan tourism sector continued to celebrate this record performance. The mood was evident during the December 18th Jordan Hotel Association’s Tourism Excellence Awards for 2010, during which speakers highlighted the upward trend of all tourism indicators for all sectors.

The released November figures have shown that tourism revenues for the first 11 months of the year rose by 19.3% to JD 2.27 billion, compared with JD 1.9 billion in the same period of 2009.

Visitors to Jordan came from all main tourism markets and regions including African countries (+13.1%), the Americas (+12.5%), East Asia and the Pacific (+24.7%), South Asia (+42.6%), Europe (+25.8%), and Arab countries (+14.1%).

The numbers of overnight European visitors continued to rise significantly exceeding 685 thousand people. French tourists continued to top the visitors’ table with 79,883 tourists, followed by British tourists (67,092), Italian tourists (53,128), German tourists (49,858), and Spanish tourists (40,525). Overnight visitors from the USA totaled 154,350 people, while Canadians totaled 20,653 people.

The Kingdom’s main tourist attractions have witnessed significant increases in visitor numbers over the first 11 months of 2010 including Petra (+26.2%), Jerash (+25.1%), Kerak (+20.6%), Ajloun (+25.6%), Um Qais (+5.1%), the Baptism Site (+20.8%), Madaba’s Map (+46.4%), and Mount Nebo (+33.7%).

The Jordan Tourism Board has said it will diversify its approach at the main tourism markets to boost these numbers while paying adequate attention to exploring and opening new markets, particularly India and China in Asia, and Brazil in South America.

The Board’s General Assembly had earlier approved its marketing plans for 2011, which also provided an overview of the Board’s strategy to boost tourism. The plans were drawn after careful analysis of international tourism trends in the various markets in which it operates. They set a number of priority actions which included the niche positioning of Jordan, utilizing information technology to reach target audiences, and to build equity into Jordan’s image.

The Board is also working on minimizing the “seasonability” factor by increasing its efforts to place Jordan as an all-year-round tourist destination, citing the Kingdom’s moderate weather throughout the year. It is maximizing its online marketing capabilities to reach the widest possible range of audience across the globe. This includes an 11-language website (www.visitjordan.com).