AMMAN - The Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) is in the midst of extensive promotional campaigns designed to enhance tourist arrivals to the Kingdom by targeting various source markets.
JTB Managing Director Nayef Al Fayiz said the campaigns focus on promoting the country's main attractions, its diverse tourism products and appeal as a year-round holiday destination.
"As a small country with a diverse tourism product and pleasant climate for most of the year, Jordan encompasses the key elements of an appealing tourist destination," Fayiz told The Jordan Times.
"The Kingdom is already drawing a large volume of tourist traffic from across Europe and the Gulf, but we need to enhance that level and have them spend more time here," he added.
JTB, the Kingdom's leading marketing tool abroad, has been at the forefront of efforts promoting the country's wealth of historical, religious and archaeological attractions.
These efforts have been expanding over the past few years with campaigns targeting tourists with different tastes and appeals.
A large segment is focused on Europe, where outgoing tourist traffic is particularly high during the winter season as vacationers seek warmer destinations abroad.
Years of promotional efforts have translated into larger arrivals from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as France, Italy and Spain.
The latest official tourism figures showed a 35.3 per cent growth in European visitors between January and August compared to the same period of last year - a total of 374,397 tourists. Visitors from the US totalled 118,747, rising 2.4 per cent during the same period.
Russian tourists are also picking up rapidly, with the number of visitors growing by 104 per cent in 2007.
Competition among tourist destinations, however, is strong, thus requiring stepped-up capacities and marketing efforts, according to Fayiz.
The World Tourism Organisation's latest tourism barometer recently revealed that there were some 610 million international tourist arrivals between January and August, an increase of 5.6 per cent from the same period of last year.
According to the WTO report, the largest growth came from emerging destinations in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.
It cited more established regions in Europe and the Americas as witnessing growth at a more moderate pace.
At the same time, the increase in travel has been complemented with a rise in travel expenditure.
For example, spending by Brazilian tourists grew 33 per cent between January and August, 24 per cent among Argentinean travellers, 18 per cent among tourists from the Republic of Korea and 16 per cent from the Russian Federation.
The report noted Germany as one of the five leading outbound markets, with the biggest growth in spending during the first six to eight months of 2007.
According to Fayiz, Jordan needs to attract greater numbers from key source markets as well as securing longer stays.
As part of their efforts, the JTB launched a large-scale outdoor and print advertising campaign in Germany, the UK and France last month designed to promote the Kingdom as a historic and luxurious adventure destination.
As part of the campaign, iconic images of key tourist sites were placed on buses in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart. A print ad campaign is under way in leading German magazines, in addition to radio advertisements and window display promotions in more than 300 travel agencies across the country.
In the UK, JTB plans to run a print ad campaign in national and regional newspapers and magazines promoting Jordan as a cultural destination rich in eco- and adventure tourism. The publications have been selected based on targeted niche markets. Food and travel magazines in England have been tagged to promote Jordan as a luxury destination with gourmet services, while the Church of England has been used as a venue to promote the Kingdom's religious sites.
The JTB's UK branch is also organising an Internet campaign with Jordan banners appearing on Google and travel websites.
The JTB is also finalising its plans to run an outdoor advertising campaign in Paris where a large variety of Jordanian landscapes will be displayed on billboards in prime locations.
By Dalya Dajani
Jordan Times 2007
