AMMAN, Jordan -- Once the awe of beholding the Treasury in Petra dimmed, the next noticeable thing was the crowds -- or lack thereof.
The Jerash Roman ruins, the largest and best preserved in Jordan, has few visitors these days. Photo Credit: Brinley Hineman
Journalists had arrived in Petra early in the day to beat the heat and tourists, but neither was a problem. The weather was cool, even momentarily chilly, and the gaggles of tourists eager to snap selfies with the Wonder of the World? There were few.
September is part of Jordan's high season, drawing visitors eager to explore the country while enjoying a break from the summer heat. But while visiting some of the destination's top historical sites in late September with G Adventures for its annual GX Summit, the steep tourism decline due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war was apparent.
Occupancy rates in Petra have fallen to as low as 1%, said Malia Asfour, the managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board in North America. The Rose City typically sees 5,000 visitors per day.
"We went from overtourism to no tourism," Asfour said. "Now, we're at trickles."
Asfour said tourism had plummeted by 70% since the war, though our guide Zuhair Zuriqat said it was as much as 90%.
Jerash, home to the country's most impressive Roman ruins, now sees just 300 visitors daily, a sharp drop from the usual 3,000, said Zuriqat, who added that there are days with no tourists at all. Even at the Dead Sea, my Uber driver said the tourism decline was palpable, but that area had fared better than other places in the country.
The U.S. State Department lists Jordan as a Level 2 travel advisory, the same safety ranking as Italy and Germany, said Cathleen Richards, the North American director for Jordan Allure Tours.
Jordan is a direct neighbor of Israel, sharing an eastern border that historically has made it easy for visitors to combine trips to the two countries. And although the conflict hasn't spilled over the border, Jordan's tourism has not recovered to prewar levels.
As Zuriqat put it: "We're in a noisy neighborhood."
"Tourism is our oil," Asfour said. "It's our largest foreign currency earned in the country."
Jordan had a record year for visitors in 2023, Asfour said, even with the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel that year. Tourism was initially buoyed by reservations made for the end of 2023; but now, it's in a slump, she said.
Even so, Asfour said she remained hopeful.
"There's been a crisis every few years, if you will," she said. "So we know from history that this is a slippery slope that keeps going up and down, and there is pent-up demand."
A hope that GX Summit sparks tourism
Jordan bid on GX, pushing G Adventures "really hard" to hold the event there. The country hopes for a tourism boost thanks to the influence of the nearly 700 attendees the event brought, including journalists, travel advisors and content creators, Asfour said.
"What we really want to show the people that are here is [that] Jordan is an incredibly safe place," G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip said. "It's caught in the crossfires of a lot of political issues at the moment, but it's really a very safe place to come.
"G Adventures has always been a company that's really committed to showing the power of tourism," he added, "and we knew that coming here was going to show that potential and that power better than any other destination."
What advisors and operators see
Still, tour operators and travel advisors report a mixed bag of client interest.
Stephanie Fisher, a travel advisor who specializes in Jordan, said bookings had dropped substantially, and for those going, they typically request a Plan B and book closer to their departure date in order to monitor the conflict.
Clients remain cautious, she said, tacking on Jordan as an extension so they still have another destination to visit if they decide to change plans. Bookings lag behind Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, she said.
Intrepid Travel, on the other hand, is seeing a positive change in bookings, said Leigh Barnes, president of the Americas. Bookings are bouncing back this year, up 38% year to date compared to the same period last year, he said. Jordan is a key destination in the region for the tour operator, ranking third behind Morocco and Turkiye, Barnes said.
But he added that now is the time to visit due to smaller crowds, granting travelers a rare and intimate experience at places like Petra or Wadi Rum.
Both Red Savannah, an operator that specializes in custom travel, and the Globus family of brands, the parent company of Globus and Cosmos, reported a sharp decline in bookings to the country this year.
But George Morgan-Grenville, founder and CEO of Red Savannah, said bookings were beginning to climb after a drop in the first and second quarter, which he linked to recommendations from travelers who recently visited the country.
Bookings have ground to a halt for Amal Mulhem, president of Travspire, while Cathleen Richards of Jordan Allure Tours said consumer confidence was increasing this fall, with travelers booking trips after delaying them for years.
"Just at the time when they were sort of building back up their coffers, they got hit with what feels to them like another pandemic," she said. "Yet they're the only ones in this pandemic. Everywhere else, tourism is booming."
Editor Ⅰ: Yuan Jiali
Editor Ⅱ: Bao Gang
Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong
