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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - His Majesty King Abdullah II said Tuesday that tourism is a vital sector that contributes to achieving high and sustainable growth rates and generating more job opportunities for the country's men and women.

In a meeting at Al Husseiniyeh Palace with representatives of the tourism sector and investors, held in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Rania, King Abdullah stressed the need to maximize Jordan's status as an oasis of security and stability and tap into available resources "to bolster the Kingdom's tourism position in the region and the world." "Jordan's priority today is the economy and means to develop local tourism, which had primarily been hit by regional crises," said the King, calling for developing Jordanian tourism, notably medical tourism, according to best practices.

He said, "the tourism industry should be developed in a way to elevate and boost its competitiveness in the region and attract more tourists," and added that emphasis should be placed on rehabilitating Jordanian manpower to meet the sector's needs and grant the youth wider opportunities to enter the local and regional markets. He also said women's contributions to the sector should be increased.

Another focus of the King's directive was for the private sector to direct its tourism investment to the governorates, "in a way that ensures the utilization of the rich diversity of the Jordanian tourism product." The meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, tackled various challenges facing local tourism with emphasis on intensifying coordination and collective cooperation among various private and public entities to overcome those challenges.

In her remarks to the meeting, Queen Rania called for benefiting from global success stories in the sector, particularly as the Kingdom enjoys a diverse tourism product, and also called for holding more cultural events in the Kingdom during summer, carry out promotion campaigns and come up with initiatives to attract tourists.

She stressed the need to run specialized colleges for training tourism and hotel workers and qualify youth to join the sector.

Participants at the meeting also pointed to the negative impact of regional turmoil on tourism, which, they said, required further governmental efforts to curb this fallout and prop up the tourism sector in order to withstand these challenges.