Jordan wants over 9 million tourists spending nearly 4 billion dollars

New plan targets reduced seasonality, more regional tourism, more employment, more female participation

The Jordan Tourism Board has welcomed the launch of the country’s new national tourism strategy, which has been developed in partnership with the private sector, with the aim of increasing the value of the industry to £3.6 billion (JD4.2 billion) by 2015.

Launched by the country’s Prime Minister Marouf Al Bakhit, the new strategy has been designed to ensure the continuing development of tourism in Jordan, with the industry welcoming 8.2 million visitors in 2010 and earning a total of £2.08 billion (JD2.4 billion) for the Kingdom.

The new 2011-2015 strategy focuses on activities that will improve the competitiveness of Jordan’s tourism industry, enhance the visitor experience through product development innovations, and attract higher yield customers throughout the year.

Marketing activity will be increased and the focus will be on increasing the total number of tourist arrivals to 9.4 million, growing domestic tourism by 30% and reducing seasonality so that visitor numbers are more consistently distributed throughout the year.

The Jordan tourism industry’s product development efforts will be particularly focused on increasing air capacity into Jordan by 20% over the next five years, as well as completing 20 new infrastructure projects, and ensuring that all hotels and 80% of restaurants are approved and grouped under the new national classifications scheme.

The strategy It is expected to create 25,000 new jobs in tourism in the Kingdom, as well as increase female participation in the workforce by 15%, and enhance the hospitality skills of 40,000 employees working in tourism.

“Jordan will be a distinctive destination offering diverse, year-round visitor experiences that will enrich the lives of Jordanians and their guest” said H.E. Dr. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities.

He added that “Jordan will continuously work on creating a more supportive business climate to enable successful investments in the tourism sector.”

Our support in developing the strategy focused on industry competitiveness. USAID/Siyaha worked with the government and private sector partners to ensure international competitiveness criteria for tourism development shape the strategy, and to ensure sustainability principles are woven throughout its initiatives,” said Ibrahim Osta, USAID Jordan Tourism Development Project (Siyaha) Chief of Party.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE