Making Jordan a repeat travel destination crucial for tourism sector

Making Jordan a repeat travel destination crucial for tourism sector

AMMAN — Jordan has over 15,000 archaeological sites that need relentless efforts for protection and renovation, Tourism Minister Makram Queisi said on Saturday.

During a session titled “Jordan as a global destination”, held as part of the “A Year of Modernisation” forum, Queisi said that Jordan has six sites registered on the World Heritage List.

The minster added that the World Tourism Organization (WTO) also declared Jordan a regional destination for medical tourism, where the organisation selected Umm Qais among the top 20 tourist villages in the world, along with selecting Madaba as the capital of Arab tourism 2022 and Irbid as the capital of Arab culture in 2022, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He noted that agreements were signed with five low-cost airlines to attract tourists from 17 countries, 25 cities, and charter flights from nine countries, as well as having direct flights to Amman from 37 countries, 69 cities and 78 airports.

The minister said that the number of visitors to the Kingdom over the past seven months exceeded 3.7 million, with an estimated growth of 51 per cent compared with the same period last year, while the number of visitors ranged between 83 and 600 per cent.

Queisi added that tourist