AMMAN: The Jordanian government has launched a five-year plan for shoring up the country's tourism industry which received a blow since the beginning of the year due to a string of Arab uprisings.
Minister of Tourism Haifa Abu Ghazaleh told a gathering of tourism industry executives that the blueprint envisaged almost doubling the income from tourism to 4.2 billion dinars ($5.9 billion) by 2015. The tourism sector contributed 2.4 billion dinars, or 14 percent, to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, she said.
"The government endeavors to accomplish the new strategy in cooperation with the country's private sector and the tourism development project which is financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)," Abu Ghazaleh said.
The minister said the tourism sector in Jordan had come to face fresh challenges mostly of external nature, especially "the political changes in the region and their impact on the flow of tourists.
She referred to the downfall of regimes in Tunisia and Jordan and the ongoing revolts in neighboring Syria, Yemen and Libya.
The Arab Spring has also inspired pro-democracy demonstrations in Jordan over the past five months.
"The new strategy will seek to raise the competitiveness of the tourism sector in the country, improving services and products presented to tourists and the adoption of better promotion programs across the world," Abu Ghazaleh said.
Nayef Fayez, director general of the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), said his body, in cooperation with the private sector and the World Tourism Organization, was working to host representatives of around 500 international travel and tourism companies in November in a bid to restore confidence in the tourism product in Jordan.
According to a recent report by the Central Bank of Jordan, the country's income from tourism fell by 12 percent in the first six months of the year due to the Arab revolts, to 949 million dinars, from 1.089 billion dinars in the same period in 2010.
There was also a 14 percent drop in the number of tourists visiting Jordan in the first half of the year, to 1.37 million from 1.596 million.
© Arab News 2011
