Jordan's tourism revenue drops by 11%

Jordan's tourism revenue fell 11 per cent in the first eight months of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010 due to regional turmoil, according to Nayef Al Fayez, Jordan Tourism Board director-general. Al Fayez said in a phone interview that revenue declined to $1.12 billion (Dh4.1 billion) and the number of tourists declined to 13 per cent to 2.7 million. "The downward trend will continue. There will also be a drop by the end of this year in revenue and in the number of tourists." Domestic product Al Fayez observed that tourism revenue has constituted 14 per cent of the Jordan's gross domestic product. Meanwhile, the country's medical tourism has also suffered a decline in patients and revenue due to the political unrest in the region. "The number of foreign patients coming to Jordan for treatment dropped 25 per cent since the beginning of February and is expected to drop further by the end of the year," Awni Bashir, president of Jordan's Private Hospitals Association, said. Big earner Bashir further said that since the beginning of events in Yemen and Libya, "Jordan received no cases from these two countries which were considered last year a major market for medical tourism and the main earner for the kingdom." He said Jordan usually receives more than 250,000 patients from across the world for medical treatment, but the number depends mainly on the region's stability.