Urgent meeting talks solutions for flagging tourism industry

AMMAN — The Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) held an urgent meeting with tourism industry representatives on Sunday to discuss  the sector’s struggle amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

ACC President Khalil Hajj Tawfiq said during the meeting that the government “should have made decisions that would inculcate confidence and comfort and alleviate the burden on the private sector”. 

The tourism sector employs a total of 53,488 people, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Furthermore, the ACC encompasses 50,000 companies, Hajj Tawfiq noted, adding that the chamber will support national decisions that benefit citizens and strengthen and protect service and commerce sectors, including the tourism industry.

COVID-19 has negatively impacted restaurants, hotels, tourism transportation, the aviation sector and travel and tourism agencies  as well as Hajj (the greater Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) and umrah (the lesser Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) travel agencies, which closed their doors after Saudi Arabia suspended entry for pilgrims, the ACC President noted.

“The ACC’s role is to find solutions and establish mechanisms to assist Jordan’s tourism sector by actively embracing representatives’ demands and recommendations, as tourism is an essential sector for the Kingdom’s economy,” Hajj Tawfiq stated.

The ACC will meet with representatives of the Social Security Corporation on Monday to arrive at solutions regarding the tourism sector’s current situation, he added.

During the meeting, hotelier and tourism investor Michael Nazzal drew attention to the worldwide devastation caused by the virus, noting that the tourism, transport and aviation sectors have been “the most severely affected”.

He highlighted budget provisions made by other countries to support both tourism and transport industries, stressing that tourism business intersects with more than 90 professions, including industrial and commercial sectors.

The investor stressed that social security expenses are “very high”, and in view of the current plummet of tourism activity, he called on the Social Security Corporation to support the sector through reviving the unemployment fund in order to pay employees’ salaries.

“We also hope that all fines, bank interests and permits will be suspended for a while, as the tourism industry will need a year to be revitalised,” he said.

Head of the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents Mohammad Samih said that the sector’s losses are “catastrophic” and, while the industry “has had its ups and downs”, this time “is different” because of the closure of all borders and points of entry by land, sea and air.

“Employers do not want to lay off their qualified employees, so cooperation is needed from both the Ministry of Labour and the Social Security Corporation,” he said.

Samih noted that Jordan has 814 travel and tourism agencies, which employ over 9,000 people.

The meeting was also attended by President of the Jordan Restaurants Association Issam Fakhir Eddin and Head of the Tourist Transport Association Shafiq Al Hayek, as well as other representatives from both the ACC and the tourism sector.