Easing of visa procedures leads to upsurge in Indian visitors

The number of Indians visiting the Kingdom is growing due to the easing of visa procedures, a government official said on Wednesday. Tourism Minister Nayef Al Fayez noted that since visa issuance for Indians was simplified in 2009, the number of tourists visiting Jordan had grown substantially. This was obvious in 2011, Fayez noted, when the total number of tourist arrivals dropped, but visitors from some markets, including India, registered an increase. “The Indian market is one of the few markets that continued to see growth in 2011,” Fayez said at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart Subodh Kant Sahai. According to tourism ministry figures, only 29,000 Indians visited Jordan in 2009, the year when visa issuance was facilitated by issuing visas to groups on arrival at the airport. A year later, the government decided to include individual tourists under the decision, according to Fayez. The minister cited direct flights between Jordan and India as another reason that helped increase tourist traffic. In 2009, the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) also opened an office in New Delhi to promote the Kingdom as a tourist destination. JTB Director General Abdul Razaq Arabiyat noted that there are plans to hold road shows in India. “We would love to conduct joint research to see which Indian cities we can promote Jordan in,” he said. Sahai noted at the press conference that wellness tourism is an area that attracts Indians to Jordan, “especially the Dead Sea”.