Jordan’s hotel occupancy rates drop due to heatwave, back to school season

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AMMAN — Hotel occupancy rates in the Kingdom have decreased due to high temperatures and approaching school season.

The reservation rate at five-star hotels from August 17-19 in Aqaba reached 87 per cent, 61 per cent in the Dead Sea, 62 per cent in Amman and 40 per cent in Petra, Vice-President of the Jordan Hotels Association (JHA) Hussein Halalat said in a recent press statement.

Occupancy rates in Aqaba’s four-star hotels reached 70 per cent, the Dead Sea area 49 per cent, Amman 70 per cent and 37 per cent in Petra, Halalat said.

According to Halalat, three-star hotels had an occupancy rate of 57 per cent in Amman, 15 per cent in Petra and 59 per cent in Aqaba.

The reservation rates since last week declined by 7 per cent in Amman, 5 per cent in the Dead Sea area and 15 per cent in Aqaba, while reservations in Petra increased by 5 per cent, according to a report by the JHA.

The association said that the occupancy rates decreased significantly — especially at the end of the week — due to a significant rise in temperatures, the imminent start of the school season and the release of the results of the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi).

The association stated that hotel occupancy rates are typically higher at this time of year.

“The high occupancy rates in Petra hotels indicate that we have moved from the recessionary season to the peak tourist season. The Petra region has high occupancy rates on weekdays — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — according to tourism programmes,” the association said in a statement.

The association pointed out that the majority of visitors are Jordanians, which means that domestic tourism is currently active.

In the first seven months of the year a total of 3,720,259 tourists visited Jordan, while 2,459,281 visitors visited Jordan last year during the same period, according to the association.

Preliminary data issued by the Central Bank of Jordan indicates that tourism revenue grew 19.4 per cent in July of 2023, reaching a total of JD554.5 million compared with last July.

In the first seven months of 2023, tourism revenue increased by 50.1 per cent, at a value of JD3.0048 billion.