Tourism income surpasses Q1 targets — report

AMMAN — The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has released its first-quarter report for 2024, providing a detailed overview of income, visitor statistics and strategic objectives for the upcoming year. 

The report highlighted a 9.7 per cent decrease in tourist arrivals compared with the same period in 2023, with the total number of visitors reaching 1.334 million, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The report attributed the decline in numbers to regional events that have adversely impacted the sector’s performance, leading to a 5.6 per cent drop over the same period, adding that despite these challenges, the tourism sector has shown resilience. 

The report also said, “Even amidst these declines, the number of tourists and overall revenues have exceeded the targets set by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for the first quarter. The tourist numbers surpassed the target by 10.5 per cent and the tourism income exceeded the target by 2.3 per cent. These figures have also surpassed the ministry’s targets from the first quarter of 2019.”

Also on Tuesday, the Central Bank of Jordan reported that tourism revenues in the first four months of the year totalled $2.1 billion, marking a decrease of 4.9 per cent compared with the corresponding period of 2023. Tourism revenues in April also went down by 2.6 per cent to $529 million, compared with the same period of last year.