First-third of 2023 witnessed spike in tourism footfall, ministry data shows

AMMAN — The Kingdom witnessed an unprecedented 87.2 per cent surge in tourist footfall in the first-third of this year compared to the same period of 2022.

According to the Tourism Ministry’s monthly bulletin, 1,957,852 people visited Jordan in the first four months of this year, in comparison with 1,046,078 during the same period of 2022.

The number of overnight tourists during this period reached a total of 1,597,539, marking a 78.7 per cent increase in contrast with 894,097 visitors in 2022.

Commenting on the figures, economist Wajdi Makhamreh noted that good infrastructure is a key component in promoting tourism and thereby increasing visitor turnout.

“It’s imperative to diversify the tourism product while ensuring that there is no shortfall in the quality of services offered to visitors to increase their duration of stay. This will certainly be reflected positively in tourism revenue,” Makhamreh told The Jordan Times.

He also noted that upskilling tourism staff is also important with the increase in the number of in-bound visitors.

According to the Tourism Ministry figures, overnight visitors from Asian countries, mainly China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore increased by a significant 260.6 per cent during the first third of 2023 compared with the same period of last year. This figure represents the highest percentage recorded among overnight tourists by region.

This was followed by overnight visitors from the Americas, with an increase of 136.1 per cent and European countries with a jump of 129.9 per cent. The number of overnight visitors from Arab countries witnessed an increase of 64 per cent.

In April alone, 481,253 tourists visited Jordan, up 77 per cent compared with the same month in 2022.