Jordan tourism sector recovers

Jordan tourism sector has showed signs of recovery in the first six months of 2012 after a year of decline in both revenues and visitor numbers, Minister of Tourism Nayef Fayez said. In a press conference, Fayez added that revenues generated by the sector in the January-June period stood at JD1.207 billion: a 19 per cent increase from JD1.011 billion in the same period last year. Moreover, he said, although visitor numbers continued to fall in the January-June period, they rebounded by 8 per cent last month and the number of reservations is growing for the upcoming tourism season that starts in September. The total number of visitors in the first six months dropped 3 per cent from 3,182,000 in 2011 to 3,083,000 this year, ministry figures showed, but some 586,000 tourists came to the country in June this year, compared to 541,000 in June 2011. Fayez noted that the rising number of visitors from the Gulf States contributed to this “improvement” in number of total arrivals. Approximately 66,092 overnight tourists from the Gulf countries came to Jordan last month, 40.9 per cent more than in June last year, when their numbers stood at 46,904. From gulftoday