Ammon News - The first charter plane from Milan, Italy, carrying tourists onboard, landed at Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) on Thursday, inaugurating a tourist air bridge linking Amman with Milan, aimed to attract tourists to Jordan with support of Jordan Tourism Board (JTB).

In a statement, JTB Director General, Abdul Razzaq Arabiyat, said this new tourist route, launched by ALPITOUR company, with a weekly trip until end of the season, reflects "true" growth in the increasing number of tourists and tourism activity from charter flights to Jordan.

Arabiyat said this step was due to joint efforts made by Ministry of Tourism and JTB, pointing to Jordanian embassy's efforts in Italy to promote tourism activity in the Kingdom.

In addition, he noted this step came in light of JTB's efforts to attract charter, low-cost, and regular aircraft from several countries to QAIA in Amman and King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba directly.

JTB, he noted, is working to attract more flights to Amman and Aqaba directly, to then visit the Kingdom's tourist and archaeological sites, indicating that these Jordan-bound tourist trips will increase number of tourists from Italy and other European countries to the Kingdom.

Arabiyat stressed JTB's keenness to provide "healthy" competitiveness in the aviation sector, and harness it to stimulate economy by attracting "key" investments and stimulating tourism to Jordanian market, which are two "vital" factors for achieving prosperity of Jordanian economy and Jordan's other tourist areas.