‘Number of overnight visitors rises by 3% in first seven months of 2014’

AMMAN — The number of overnight visitors to the Kingdom increased by 3 per cent during the first seven months of 2014, standing at 2,305,870 tourists, compared with 2,237,493 in the same period last year, Tourism Minister Nidal Katamine said Tuesday.The number of overnight visitors to the Kingdom increased by 3 per cent during the first seven months of 2014, standing at 2,305,870 tourists, compared with 2,237,493 in the same period last year, Tourism Minister Nidal Katamine said Tuesday.

Katamine added that overall tourism revenues rose by 10 per cent to reach around JD1.8 million, compared with JD1.6 million during the same period in 2013.

The number of tour groups increased by 12 per cent during the January-July period of 2014, standing at 157,000 tourists compared with 141,000 last year, he added, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

During the first three months of 2014, the number of tourists visiting the ancient city of Petra rose by 3 per cent, Karak by 16.2 per cent and Jerash by 17 per cent, while visitors to the Baptism Site, where Jesus Christ was baptised by John the Baptist, increased by 14.6 per cent.

Mount Nebo witnessed a 7 per cent rise in the number of visitors, while the highest increase in the first quarter was marked in the Greek Orthodox Church of St George in Madaba at 18 per cent, compared with the same period in 2013.

The church was built in 1896 AD, over the remains of a much earlier sixth century Byzantine church.

The Madaba Mosaic Map covers the church’s floor and is part of a mosaic panel that was originally around 94 square metres in area, only about a quarter of which is preserved, according to the Jordan Tourism Board.

The sixth century map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, made up of two million pieces of “vividly coloured local stone”, depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta.

Katamine attributed the increase in overnight visitors and tour groups to the safety, security and stability the Kingdom enjoys in an unstable region, Petra reported.