Number of Russian tourists visiting Aqaba on the rise

AMMAN — The number of Russian tourists coming to Aqaba is expected to increase significantly this year as some 950 Russian visitors currently arrive in Aqaba every week, Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) Director General Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat said on Sunday.

Five flights arrive from Russia to Aqaba weekly, each plane carrying around 190 visitors, the official told The Jordan Times, adding that the chartered flights getting to Aqaba from Russia are supported by a JTB programme under which the JTB pays around $60 of the cost of each ticket for Russian tourists.

“Our objective is to boost the number of tourists coming from Russia to Jordan through this move… we expect the numbers to keep growing,” he added.

According to Arabiyat, a total of 157 flights carrying Russian tourists arrived in Aqaba in 2017 compared to 79 flights in 2016.

The overall number of Russian tourists coming to Jordan rose by 43 per cent in 2017 to 70,627, compared to 49,384 in 2016.

In 2017, the tourism sector’s revenues reached JD3.23 billion, rising by 12.5 per cent compared to 2016. The number of tourist groups coming to Jordan rose by 43 per cent in the same year.

“We are also working on attracting new chartered flights from other countries to increase the number of tourists coming to Aqaba,” he stated.

The official said the JTB pays the $60 of the cost of the ticket on these chartered flights provided that the tourist stays for a minimum of seven days in the Kingdom.

The tourism sector, which contributes 11 per cent to the country’s economy annually, directly employs 51,000 individuals, 82.5 per cent of whom are Jordanian, in addition to tens of thousands of indirect jobs.

The JTB began implementing this project after the government decided to exempt chartered flights from the departure tax previously imposed on budget and chartered flights.

According to Arabiyat, the JTB is working on a strategy to boost the number of people visiting the Kingdom by signing several agreements with budget flights and plans to support chartered flights.

“We seek to attract more tourists by making sure that the prices of flight tickets to Jordan are affordable, as one of the key challenges that hindered the attraction of more tourists into the Kingdom was the cost of tickets,” he said.

Jordan has recently signed a deal with Ryanair budget airline that will start flights to the Kingdom this month.