Jordan’s tourism revenue to double this year

A tourism expert has predicted that Jordan’s revenue from the tourism sector in 2013 will more than double, compared to the previous year. President of the Jordan Hotel Association (JHA) Michel Nazzal said that global tourism growth had impacted Jordan with the number of foreign tourists soaring from 469 million in 2012 to 494 million this year. He said in a lecture at the University of Jordan’s Faculty of Business that the Jordanian economy’s future would depend on the tourism sector due to the downward trend in the industrial sector as a result of soaring energy and electricity costs and the agricultural sector retreating due to water shortage. Nazzal said Jordan is home to 28 historic sites with a diverse tourism product in a small area, noting that the Kingdom had registered four sites as UNESCO world heritage sites: Petra, Wadi Rum, Umm al Rassas and Amra Palace. He said the tourism sector employed an estimated direct workforce of 42,000 besides an indirect 120,000 job opportunities while income from tourism accounted for almost 17 per cent of the balance of payments current account.