AMMAN -- Around 26,000 tourists visited the ancient city of Petra in the first month of this year, indicating a healthy flow of tourist traffic to the country.
Malek Amarat, who heads Petra's Tourism Department, said the majority of the visitors were European tourists arriving at Aqaba on weekly cruises.
"We have already begun with some positive figures for the beginning of this year, mainly passengers aboard these cruise liners," Amarat told The Jordan Times.
"They dock in Aqaba and spend a day in Petra, exploring the site and the city," he added.
According to Amarat, tourist numbers in January were an estimated 15 per cent higher than the same month of last year.
He believes the positive trend will continue for the first quarter of this year.
The tourists visiting Petra are part of two cruise programmes under way since last year.
The Thomson Spirit makes a weekly trip to the Red Sea that includes stopovers at the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh and Aqaba. The liner, which carries an average of 700-1,200 passengers on each trip docks at Aqaba Port every Friday and its passengers are taken for a day tour to Petra before they sail on Saturday.
This programme, which includes mostly British tourists, first took off in October 2005 and will last until May.
Another cruise liner that docks in Aqaba on a weekly basis is the Sapphire, which has been operating to the Red Sea port since December last year, and will run until April. The passengers mainly consist of European tourists, most of them Germans.
Although still battling regional political instability, Jordan managed to weather recurring shocks in the region last year and maintain a steady flow of tourist traffic to the country.
The Kingdom has had sufficient experience to pull through as a safe and secure destination during difficult times, through ongoing marketing efforts and the overall greater awareness of terrorism by the average traveller.
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) barometer report, Jordan saw an 8 per cent increase in tourists last year, with 3.225 million tourists visiting the Kingdom in 2006.
Experts regarded the figures as generally positive, given the overall geopolitical situation in the region, and last summer's Israel-Lebanon crisis in particular.
The report noted that several destinations in the region showed healthy results with a total of 40.762 million tourists visiting the Middle East last year, a 4 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
Egypt, which endured yet another terrorist bombing in its Red Sea resort of Dahab in April last year, also showed significant progress with an 8 per cent increase in arrivals last year.
At least 9.082 million tourists visited Egypt in 2006, an increase of more than 400,000 visitors from the previous year.
Bahrain also showed healthy growth of around 26 per cent in the first half of the year, while Yemen registered 17 per cent increase in arrivals between January and November.
Full year data for Gulf countries was not available.
Although positive, the results, which were based on preliminary data, were lower than expectations forecast by UNWTO officials for the region earlier in the year.
The global tourism industry as a whole witnessed positive results last year, with 4.5 per cent growth that brought 842 million international arrivals to destinations worldwide.
According to the report, Africa outpaced all other regions with almost twice the rate of global growth, amounting to 8.1 per cent in 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa led at 9.4 per cent, while North Africa's 5.8 per cent also ended the year above average. Major destinations such as South Africa, Kenya and Morocco all continued to post excellent results.
Africa was followed by Asia and the Pacific which was also able to maintain its growth level at 7.6 per cent, both due to the recovery of Thailand and the Maldives from the impact of the December 2004 tsunami.
International tourist arrivals in South Asia grew by 10 per cent boosted by India, the destination responsible for half the arrivals to the sub-region.
On the other hand, Europe's performance was as industry experts projected with 4 per cent growth.
By Dalya Dajani
© Jordan Times 2007
