JITOA to offer certifications for the Jordan tourism industry

If you want to make it in the world today, you need to set standards through international accreditations, says Ahmad El Bashiti, Executive-Director JITOA.

His association is now well on the way in producing certifications for the tourism industry in Jordan which are accredited by international institutes such as the George-Washington University's School of Hospitality and the Travel Institute both of which are based in Washington.

'In a bid to introduce greater professionalism in the Jordanian tourism industry, JITOA began to introduce a set of courses began in 2006 to give tourism practitioners in Jordan the necessary academic qualifications to enable them to improve the growth of their businesses in luring international tourists to the Kingdom which stood in 2006 at around six million,' adds Bashiti.

'Such growth is impelling us as an association of inbound tour operators to introduce courses that would raise the professional standard of the industry to meet the raising number of tourists to the Kingdom which are increasingly coming from Europe and North America.

JITOA started with a business perspective in mind as in 2006, the Association introduced an Events Management Program that include set courses to deal with hosting international meetings, events and exhibitions in the Kingdom.

'We realized this kind of tourism is increasing in the Kingdom and many international meetings and congresses are being hosted here, that's why we wanted to introduce the Event Management Program to equip local staffs who organize such events to have the professional niche, deliver the expert serve and give value so that business clients would come back.'

Through such courses we want to ensure that the element of sustainability is ensured and that international clients who hold their events in Jordan will comeback as studies testify that 40 percent of those who hold events in one area of the world or another are involved in repeat business.

Because of this, JITOA is increasing its offerings of other international certification like those from the Travel Institute including the Certified Travel Associate (CTA), Certified Travel Councelor (CTC), and the Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE).

These courses complement each other and need to be taken consecutively to acquire their full benefit although each course is designed for different levels of staff categories. While the CTA is for front-line professionals and concentrate on the basics of how to close more sales, improve efficiency, and gain better customer service skills the CTC is for owners and managers and involve the generation of long-term business opportunities. And the CTIE teaches industry professionals how to develop business-to-business opportunities.

These are a symbol and tag marks for tour operators and agents of the Kingdom as a tourism provider and these courses will upgrade the industry, provide for better standards and generate business.

'If you as country want to continue to have these global exhibitions, meetings and events, and build Jordan as a major global destination, the local tourism professionals need to have international accreditations to show that they are up to the job when they do the biddings for projects, and in attracting international visitor clients and package tour agencies who would themselves start promoting Jordan as a travel destination.'