The tourism strategy has identified seven major challenges to the development of tourism in Jordan and marketing the country as a holiday destination in foreign markets. These include:
4.6.1.1 Overcoming the fear factor (safety)
Tourists perceive Jordan to be a relatively high risk destination (MOTA 2010). The Government of Jordan is responding to this factor by using a „campaign approach‟ to brand Jordan as a safe destination, utilising Jordanian embassies abroad and other Media channels, encouraging FAM trips to Jordan, identifying Jordan as a distinctive destination vs. the Middle East and utilising international travel and tourism fairs.
4.6.1.2 Establishing a public/private sector partnership
To establish partnership between the public and private sectors for the sake of tourism, the Government communicates its partnership with the private sector. A good example of this partnership was the creation of the Jordan Tourism Board in 1998 to market Jordan as a tourism destination in foreign markets (JTB 2009). Other examples include developing and marketing specific products such as education tourism, especially higher education, and health tourism (JNTS 2040-2010).
4.6.1.3 Low visitor spending
It was estimated that visitor spending in Jordan is lower than the average for the world and neighbouring countries, i.e. US$485 in Jordan compared to US$670 for the world.
It was US$1800 in Israel, US$1000 in Lebanon and US$790 in Egypt, as major competitors to Jordan (National Tourism Strategy 2004-2010, p.8). The strategy has identified four main reasons for this low visitor spending are short length of stay that is now 4.8 days (MOTA 2010); low visitor expenditure per day due to lack of related activities or events; uncoordinated visitor servicing after arrival in Jordan and lack of information on product range and diversity. Therefore, the strategy calls for an immediate programme and action plan for product development and marketing that should be designed to extend the stay of tourists in the country.
4.6.1.4 Developing and facilitating access to air travel and visas
To facilitate accessibility of Jordan as a holiday destination, the Government has implemented an open skies policy that might increase air travel to Jordan in order to enhance Jordan‟s competitiveness in the region, as well upgrading airport facilities and staff training. Flights to Jordan are still more expensive than other destinations such as Egypt and Israel or Lebanon. The Queen Alia International Airport is being developed and expanded to cope with the vast number of travellers with investment of US$675 Million; it is expected the „new‟ airport will be opened in 2012 to accommodate 9 million travellers and up to 12 million in the second stage of the development (MOTA 2010). Regarding visa requirements, Jordan has granted free entry for groups of five or more travellers to enter the country for the purpose of tourism or business (JTB 2010b); however, individual travellers can get an entry visa very easily in all entry borders for a nominal fee of US$14 for single entry or US$28 for multiple entries.
4.6.1.5 Changing Jordan’s overall reliance on traditional archaeological attractions
Research has shown that Jordan was relying a lot upon its archaeological assets (e.g.
Schneider and Sönmez 1999; MOTA 2005; Hazbun 2008). New tourism products are being developed and upgraded; for example, the Baptism Site since 1999; Mount Nebo since 2008; therapeutic tourism since 1988 in the Dead Sea, Ma‟in and other hot and mineral springs throughout the country (Harahsheh 2002; Euromonitor International 2007). Others include wildlife or nature-based tourism in Dana, Azraq, Wadi Rum and Wadi Mujib since 1975 and MICE tourism in Amman, the Dead Sea
since 2004 (annual World Economic Forum,
http://www.weforum.org/pdf/Middle_East/2009/ME09reportCD/), Petra in 2005 (a yearly Petra Nobel Prize Laureates, http://www.petranobel.org/) and Aqaba since (http://www.micejordan.net/). Moreover, new events and other entertainment packages should be developed in order to diversify Jordanian tourism offerings and satisfy a wider spectrum of tourists.
4.6.1.6 Greater involvement by the private sector in investing in and managing public assets
The Jordanian Government has facilitated investment in all industries, especially the tourism and hospitality sectors. According to the Jordan Investment Board, JIB (2010), most investment in the tourism and hospitality sectors is in Amman, Dead Sea, Petra and Aqaba. Aqaba alone attracted more than 10 billion Dinars in the last five years in major projects such as Tala Bay, Ayla Bay, Coral Bay, and Aqaba Oasis. The Dead Sea received investments in high-class hotels such as the Jordan Valley Marriott Resort and Spa and the Kempinski Ishtar.
4.6.1.7 Competitiveness and quality in everything Jordan does and offers
The last challenge to the development and marketing of Jordan as a holiday destination is its competitiveness and the quality of offerings. This will also need benchmarking, which involves comparing the performance of different destination products and identifying the best ones, with a view to improving the performance of the whole destination. The issue for Jordan is to know what the destination wants to be and the destination to be used for comparison relevant to major competitors such as Israel and Egypt. The strategy asserts that Jordan‟s tourism products must be at
„world-class‟ level in order to compete and redress the external regional conflict and its consequences for Jordan. Again, public/private partnership in site management is favoured in order to sustain, upgrade, market and promote the whole of Jordan as a holiday destination. Local communities should be involved in the process by promoting their handicrafts and agricultural products locally and internationally (MOTA 2005). One important issue with Jordan tourism is its low supply of accommodations in comparison to its rivals in the region. Jordan needs to triple its hotel and other accommodation facilities in the next 10 years in order to improve competitiveness in the market; it currently has 23113 hotel rooms and 44371 hotel beds (Jordan Hotel Association, JHA 2010; MOTA 2010).
Jordan‟s National Tourism Strategy claims that tourism development is not only concentrated in cities but also its benefits are distributed in the whole of Jordan. It is argued that this is valid in cities such as Amman, Madaba, Petra, Aqaba, Wadi Rum
and the Dead Sea. The north of Jordan, however, is still not developed and tourism activities do not exist in Jerash, Ajloun and Um Qais, although a lot of tourists visit these sites; Jerash, for example, is the most visited site in Jordan after Petra (MOTA 2010). Local communities in Jerash, Ajloun and Um Qais are not benefiting from tourism, they are not involved in tourism development and marketing, as the strategy was intended to respond to the sixth challenge, i.e. involvement of local community by promoting their traditional and agricultural products. Another study by the Jordanian Department of Statistics, DOS (2009) confirms this worry that most Jordanians, although appreciating the importance of tourism to the Jordanian economy, are not convinced by its benefits on an individual basis.