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Ammon News - by Fahed Fanek / Jordan Times

Jordan’s receipt from tourism during this year is expected to top JD2.5 billion. At the same time, Jordanians travelling abroad, excluding expatriates, are expected to spend around JD600 million, according to official estimates. Actual expenditure abroad may be double that much, rising to almost half the incoming tourism receipts.

This rough picture by no means indicates that the balance of tourism is solidly in favour of Jordan, as suggested by the above estimates. There is a big difference between amounts spent abroad, appearing on the negative side of the balance of payments, and amounts received internally.

The value added by tourism receipts is believed to be rather low, and the real balance may that Jordan’s net position is close to zero. Net receipts are not much higher than the gross payments, if any.

In other words, between half and three quarters of tourist receipts will be used to import several goods that tourists consume, such as food, drinks, fuel, hotels’ amenities, depreciation of tourist buses, and so on.

Jordan is a tourist destination. It enjoys major attractions in Aqaba, at the Dead Sea, Petra, Jerash, Um Qais and the Baptism Site. As such, the tourism balance should be in Jordan’s favour in a big way, and it would if only it could attract more Arab and foreign tourists and reduce the number of Jordanians travelling abroad for pleasure.

Tourism and travel agents in Jordan are very active in promoting outgoing tourism, much more than serving incoming tourism.

Suffice it to look at our daily newspapers and other media outlets to find that they are full of advertisements tempting the public to go to Sharm El Sheikh, Turkey, the Far East and other destinations.

In fact, some travel agents are addressing even the poor and lower middle class citizens who have no money to pay for tourism.

They offer travel on credit and payment by installments.

It is important to look at the classification of the incoming tourists. If it is true that the receipts from Arab patients coming to Jordan for medical treatment make up to 50 per cent of the total tourism receipts, it can be concluded that the traditional tourism contributes much less than the statistics suggest.

Natural attractions in Jordan are great but not fully exploited, not even close to their potential.

The reason may be the near absence of entertainment facilities and atmosphere.

Not all tourists are patients seeking medical help or experts coming to attend professional conferences. More openness is needed and tourist attractions must be developed.

High on the list of missing facility is a casino to serve non-Jordanians. A casino will be able to attract many and rich tourists, gain direct financial revenues and foreign exchange.

It is strange that those who tolerate casino business in other Arab countries, such as Egypt, Lebanon and Jericho, become extremists when it comes to Jordan.

They try to impose themselves as guardians of proper behaviour of foreigners.