Award winning Petra boosts Jordan's growing tourism industry

The poll was the brainchild of Swiss Adventurer Bernard Weber, the man behind the appropriately named New7Wonders Foundation. Voting got underway in earnest in early 2006 when 21 sites were under consideration and the final seven 'winners' were announced in Lisbon on July 7 this year. The other three sites that made it on to the final list were Rome's Colosseum, Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer and Mexico's Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.

The voting and the subsequent results have received some criticism for being more an exercising in effective marketing than anything else but, for Petra, and Jordan's Ministry of Tourism, the nomination simply provides fantastic free publicity. A number of Jordanian tourism officials have been quick to predict that the number of visitors to Petra is likely to double.

Tourist numbers and revenues rise

But figures recently released by Jordan's Ministry of Tourism, and covering the first six months of the year, reveal that the number of tourists coming to the kingdom is already making impressive headway as it is. The total rose by 13.8 per cent when compared to January-June last year, with around three million visitors making the journey, as opposed to 2.6 million in 2006.

This solid increase has also impacted on revenues, with $807m earned in the half-year period, a lift of more than 20 per cent on the $669m accrued by the end of June last year, according to Central Bank statistics cited by the Jordan Times.

Jordan remains heavily reliant on intra-regional tourism, and, as usual, Gulf based travellers provide the backbone to the industry, accounting for 55 per cent of all overnight visitors. Unsurprisingly, Petra was the most popular tourism site, receiving over 250,000 visitors and just edging out the Red Sea resort of Aqaba which, according to the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, played host to 244,000 tourists in the first half of the year, a rise of 12 per cent.

Aqaba, with so much of its tourism provision still being built, is undoubtedly developing a healthy trade, seeing 192,000 hotel rooms occupied by the end of June and handling 51 cruise ships, a sizeable increase on the 36 that docked at Aqaba's port over the same period last year.

RJ flying high

The increase in the number of visitors to the kingdom is also borne out by some impressive figures released by national flag carrier, Royal Jordanian. The airline registered the highest monthly total of passengers in its 44 year history in July when it transported 240,000 people, a 15 per cent rise on the same month last year.

June had also been a strong month with more than 200,000 passengers choosing to fly with RJ, a 14 per cent lift on June 2006. The airline's President/CEO Samer Majali believes July's record won't last long though, with August, so often an airline's busiest month of the year, already being touted to move the bar higher when its figures are published.

RJ is enjoying something of a purple patch at the moment with July's seat load factor hitting a very respectable 80.4 per cent and flying hours, flight movements and aircraft utilisation all significantly up. The airline's confidence can perhaps be seen in its recent decision to re-open its service to Montreal a full ten years after it was closed for commercial reasons.

Potential concerns

It would appear Jordan's travel industry is looking in fine fettle right now with visitor numbers on the rise and its airline filling its planes, but Petra's success in the New7Wonders Foundation's poll has raised some interesting points. If its nomination as a 'wonder of the world' does help to generate a step up in visitors to the kingdom, then Petra and other popular sites could start to feel the impact of hordes of tourists visiting on a daily basis.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Unesco, distanced itself from the seven wonders poll and voiced concerns about how the contest could help contribute to the preservation of the sites it was honouring in any 'significant and sustainable manner'. Some Jordanian archaeologists have already voiced concerns about the need to make sure Petra isn't damaged by a sudden influx of visitors.

It could be that Jordan's Ministry of Tourism may soon have to put as much emphasis on the preservation of the kingdom's treasures as on the need to attract more tourists to them. But this is surely a situation it would be only too happy to handle.

See also:
Kempinski expands in Jordan and beyond
Jordan's tourism industry makes gains in a difficult year