Jordan Tourism Board is looking at a 45 per cent growth in tourist arrivals from India this year, thanks to relaxed visa norms and better flight capacity.
“With the visa-on-arrival norms for individual Indian tourists, we have seen a 43 per cent growth in Indian tourists visiting Jordan until May this year — the highest across markets,” Mr Nayef H. Al-Fayez, Managing Director, Jordan Tourism Board, told Business Line . Last year, Indian tourist arrivals in Jordan stood at 51,000, a 73 per cent year-on-year growth.
According to him, the Royal Jordanian Airlines, which increased its flight capacity on its direct flights to Mumbai and New Delhi earlier this year, is also looking at increasing the frequency to New Delhi from the present four flights to five a week from September.
Tourism is the second major contributor to Jordan's economy, contributing to 14 per cent of the country's GDP. With 2012 being the 200{+t}{+h} year of the discovery of the “lost city” of Petra, Mr Al-Fayez hopes the country would see tourist arrivals increasing, especially from India. However, the political crisis in West Asia and financial crisis in some European countries, would impact the overall tourist arrivals in Jordan, he said.
The tourism board is focussing more on Indian metros, and promoting the country as a MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) destination for corporates. It is also showcasing more destinations in Jordan such as Wadi Rum, the desert region, Jerash, and also the shopping attractions in Amman, the Jordanian capital. Mr Al-Fayez was hopeful that with more options, Indians, who on an average spend 2.9 nights in Jordan, would stay more in his country. At present, the average Indian spend is at $150 a day, excluding travel expenses.