Nearly 155,000 cars entered Jordan from Gulf in summer holiday

AMMAN — A total of 154,920 cars entered the Kingdom from Saudi Arabia through the Omari border crossing this summer, a customs official said on Wednesday.

Attallah Taani, the director of the Jordan Customs Department office at the border crossing, said the summer vacation season, which extends from June 1 until August 31, was marked by an influx of Jordanian expatriates working or studying in Arab Gulf countries, in addition to Gulf tourists.

“By the end of the season, 149,734 cars left the Kingdom for Saudi Arabia,” he told The Jordan Times in a phone interview, noting that the vehicles were carrying passengers, not goods.

Most of the cars that entered Jordan via the border crossing had Saudi plates.

Around 70 per cent of the vehicles were from Saudi Arabia, followed by Kuwait (6 per cent) and the United Arab Emirates (4 per cent), Taani said, noting that all overland visitors from Arab Gulf countries enter the Kingdom through the Omari border crossing.

Amman residents complained of “unprecedented” traffic jams throughout the summer season, with the number of cars rising to dramatic levels when expatriates and Gulf tourists were in the Kingdom for the summer.

Official figures estimate the number of Jordanian expatriates at around 750,000, the majority of whom live in Arab Gulf states.

Over 300,000 Jordanian professionals are based in Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE with nearly 200,000. During the summer season, expatriates boost demand for most commodities in the domestic market in addition to their contribution in fuelling the property market. 

Jordanian professionals abroad are also an important source of foreign currency inflows into the Kingdom. According to Central Bank of Jordan figures, expatriate remittances rose by 3.1 per cent at the end of June, standing at $1.85 billion compared with $1.794 billion during the same period last year.