Ammon News - A recovery plan that the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities will launch soon to rehabilitate tourist sites will develop the national tourism product and address unemployment in the sector, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry pundits and academics as reported by Petra.

The JD11 million scheme, which was unveiled on Wednesday as part of a package and measures to stimulate the economy and reduce the burden on citizens and the sectors affected by the pandemic, will provide about 4,500 job opportunities for eight months, the government said.

"This project should be permanent to ensure a sustainable development of the tourism product and employ trained and qualified Jordanian youth graduating from Jordanian universities," said Yarmouk University antiquities protection and management Professor Ziyad Al-Saad.

It is important to build bridges and network with international institutions, such as the World Tourism Organization and UNESCO, for the maintenance, rehabilitation and restoration of archaeological sites and the care of world heritage sites in the Kingdom, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Jordan Ibrahim Bazazo said.

"The absence of tourists from the archaeological sites due to the coronavirus pandemic is an opportunity that needs to be seized to maintain and rehabilitate them and provide the facilities that serve the visitor in order (for the country) to return to the global tourism industry market and welcome tourists from abroad," said Tourism and Travel professor Saad Al-Saad of Yarmouk University.

Professor of the Department of Tourism and Travel at Yarmouk University Abdel Qader Ababneh stressed the need to kickstart the tourism sector and put it on the road to recovery "to make up for the losses it incurred due to the pandemic," noting that the project will effectively help overhaul the industry and employ youth.