Jordan’s tourism revenue declines by 4.9 per cent in first half of 2024

AMMAN — The tourism revenue in the Kingdom in the first half of 2024 reached $3.3 billion, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) said on Monday.

CBJ data said that the tourism revenue in the January-June period dropped by 4.9 per cent compared with the same period of 2023, attributing this to the decrease of tourists by 7.9 per cent, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In 2023, the Kingdom’s income from tourism increased by 27.4 per cent, according to data issued by the CBJ in January.

The country’s tourism income reached JD7,409.7 million in 2023, up from JD5,253.5 in 2022, where the number of tourists who visited Jordan in 2023 totalled 6,353,800 visitors, the CBJ said at the time.

The number of visitors last year rose by around 25.8 per cent when compared with the number of tourists in 2022.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ first-quarter report for 2024, providing a detailed overview of income, visitor statistics, and strategic objectives for the upcoming year, showed a 9.7 per cent decrease in tourist arrivals compared with the same period in 2023, with the total number of visitors reaching JD1.334 million.

An International Monetary Fund report said earlier in June that the current impact of the war on Gaza is concentrated on the tourism sector as a result of the cancellations by tourists from advanced economies, which account for a third of tourism revenues.

Bookings cancelled in the last quarter of 2023 reached at least 65 per cent, largely due to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, according to official estimates.