Jordan Tourism Sector

Content

>Tourism Sector
>Medical Tourism
>Religious Tourism
>Eco Tourism
>Royal Jordanian

Jordan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Stretching back thousands of years into prehistory, its more than 10,000 registered archeological sites make contain the very roots of human civilization.

Its famous “Lost City” of Petra, remembered in poetry as “a rose-red city half as old as time,” and unforgettably featured in a host of films, novels, and video games, is one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” is a “must see” on any traveler’s or tourist’s list.

Jordan has some of the most beautiful and best preserved Greek and Roman ruins of antiquity in its cities of Jerash, Umm Qais (“The Black Gem of the Desert”), Amman, and Umm al-jimal.

Kerak and esh-Shobak (Mont Real) contain massive castles built by the Crusaders, while Umm Amra and Aljun offer some of the best preserved architecture of the early Islamic periods.

Jordan also has its share of Christian and Jewish religious sites, including the Jordan River valley, where Jesus was baptized, the oldest Christian church at Mafraq, and Mount Neboww where Moses viewed the Promised Land before he died.

Jordan also features beautiful and scenic natural reserves at Dana, Arzeq, Shawmari, and Mujib; in addition to seaside resorts near Aqaba.

The growing number of tourists visiting Jordan, which has been steadily growing since the 1990s, remained static from 2008 to 2009, but increased substantially in 2010, to over 4.5 million visitors. The tourist sector currently accounts for 15% of GDP, but is expected to account for 25% by 2020. 

The Petra Authority was created only a year ago to create a master plan for tourist facilities. To its Director, Nasser Al Shraideh, Petra “has the past, the present and the future. The past in terms of history; it is a very unique civilization.

The place gives you a unique experience. It has over 3000 special monuments; the type of architecture there is really amazing. The engineering system this civilization brought to the place is quite impressive. At this site you can trace human settlement from over 10,000 years ago.”

In developing a master plan, says Shraideh, “We are looking for a package of marketable investment opportunities that can attract more tourists for multiple times and longer periods. The site itself takes 8 full days to see entirely and 14 days to fully enjoy! But most people only stay for a couple days and their trip ends at the Treasury.”

The Petra Authority also wants to make Petra a year-round vacation center. The area has been designated a development zone, with all the tax and development advantages of other SEZs. The goal, says Shraideh is to develop an innovative approach:

“I hope that different types of concepts can be adopted here, that are more than accommodation, concepts that can truly provide the tourist with a living experience of what this place used to represent in the past. I don’t want to preempt the process that we have, but I believe that a number of touristic villages can be established within the region that can really add value to what we offer .”

A Special Niche—Medical Tourism

Jordan is also becoming known for medical tourism. According to Dr. Victor Abdullah Al Bashir, General Manager of Jordan Hospital, “In 2009, Deloitte reported that Jordan was among the top ranking countries for medical tourism and several of our hospitals were marked as centers of excellence. Worldwide now Jordan is well known as a choice destination for medical tourism.”

On the requirements for medical tourism, Dr. Al-Bashir says that, “to become a medical tourism destination we need several things, some of them being stability, safety, security, infrastructure, geographical location, and facilities. 

We are working on raising awareness by attending medical tourism congresses and this has helped put Jordan on the top of the list.”

As with all successful projects in Jordan, Dr. Al-Bashir’s mind turns to the training young people:

“We are currently working on a project to open a medical university.  Jordan is known for its services both medical and educational.  People come to Jordan for both of these and we want to combine these by opening the first private medical university in Jordan. We are working with the Minister of Education and we have a partnership with George Washington University and within a year we should see this materialize.”

Religious Tourism

Jordan has more than 200 religious sites related to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Chief among them are Bethany where John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan river; Mount Nebo from which Moses saw the Holy Land;

Amman where David defeated Goliath; Gedara (modern day Umm Qais) where Jesus worked the miracle of the Gadarene swine; Anjara where Jesus and Mary rested on their journeys;

Mukawir where Herod Antipas beheaded John the Baptist; Madaba site of Exodus and King David’s wars, as well as stunning Byzantine church mosaics; the Dead Sea sites of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot’s Cave;

Salt, site of the shrine of the Job, the prophet Jethro, and tombs of Jacob’s sons; Pella (Penuel) so named by Jacob after he wrestled God; Petra where Moses struck his staff to bring for water, where Aaron the brother of Moses is buried, and the last stop of the Three Kings who brought gifts to the infant Jesus.j

The Jordan ministry of Tourism has been assiduous in preserving and developing its religious sites to maximize the religious purposes of its sites and to accommodate the increasing numbers of tourists who come to Jordan.

Jordan is an increasingly popular tourist destination not only due to its large number of religious sites, but also due to the relative safey and security of tourists in the country—Jordan has long been one of the most politically stable and personally safe countries in the Middle East for tourists.

Eco-Tourism

The Royal Society for Conservation of Nature is charged with developing the natural wonders of Jordan as protected areas open to public enjoyment. Through its “Wild Jordan” program, it oversees the Dana Biosphere Reserve, Mujib Nature Reserve, Ajloun Forest Reserve, Azraq Wetland Reserve, Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, and the Dibeen Forest Reserve.

Ecotourism is an increasing segment of Jordan’s tourism trade, attracting tens of thousands of tourists eager to enjoy the vast diversity of Jordan’s ecosystem in preserved in its natural splendor.

The Travel Experience—Royal Jordanian Airlines

Airlines are an important part of the tourism industry, and Hussein Dabbas, CEO of  Royal Jordanian Airlines (RJ) leads the way in presenting an inviting way to fly to Jordan. “I want to be a boutique airline; a small, nice airline that people will choose because they don’t want to stay at a hotel with 5000 rooms; they want to stay at a hotel with 22 rooms that provides personal attention and good service.

This is what Royal Jordanian is doing right now. We’re a small airline, providing excellent service on and off the ground.”

“Therefore,” says Dabbas, “I am 100% against cutting any costs related to passenger comfort and convenience. On the contrary, we are spending more money on the amenities, on the food and drink, and entertainment systems….We go out of our way to entertain the passenger, to keep them comfortable, to feed them well, and sometimes we overfeed them! We look at other ways of controlling costs….”

And this policy is proving successful, says Dabbas: “We are noticing that in Jordan, our market-share is in the upper 50s, sometimes close to 60% of the market, and this is unprecedented in many countries. This is a clear indication that people like the product and services we are offering, and have high trust in the airline. This is a clear indication of the success of our strategy to be the airline of choice to the country.”

Like many other industries in Jordan, Dabbas acknowledges a debt to the King. “Of course, the support we are getting from His Majesty King Abdullah and the government is tremendous; we don’t get financial support but we do get a lot of actual support.

[But] this support would not have come had we not proven that we are a worthy airline of this country and that we are presenting the people and the country in the best way possible.”