AMMAN –– As Jordan’s tourism industry was caught in extraordinary circumstances this year due to instability in the region, authorities say they have put in place a plan to salvage the sector in 2012.

According to Nayef Fayez, director general of the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), the board will extend more invitations to Arab and international media representatives and journalists to experience the stability and security the country enjoys, in a bid to reduce the repercussions of regional uncertainties on the local tourism sector.

The board, in cooperation with the private sector and the World Tourism Organisation, is working to host representatives of around 500 international travel and tourism companies in November in a bid to restore confidence in the tourism product in Jordan and to place the Kingdom on the packages list they promote, he noted.

“Indicators in terms of reservations for next year are not encouraging so we have put more efforts and plans to rescue the season,” Fayez said at a meeting with journalists on Wednesday.

In addition to sending industry delegations from public and private sectors to several targeted markets, Fayez stated the board will also launch promotional campaigns on social networking sites and TV commercials on Arab and international TV channels.

The extraordinary situation experienced by the tourism sector, whose annual contribution to the gross domestic product is 14 per cent, requires the efforts of all stakeholders to implement these measures, he added.

He highlighted that due to the measures the government has taken recently to facilitate the entry of Arab visitors, this month has seen a rise in the number of Gulf tourists who spend few days in the country.

According to JTB figures, 130,000 visitors from the Gulf, mainly Saudi Arabia, entered Jordan during the first 23 days of July, a small share of them only left through the Jaber Border Crossing on the border with Syria.

Only 7,500 people crossed into Syria, Fayez said, adding that 3,500 of them returned to Jordan shortly through the same crossing.

According to official figures, some 200,106 overnight tourists from the Gulf countries visited Jordan in July 2010, but Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Haifa Abu Ghazaleh explained in previous remarks to The Jordan Times that figures in July last year were higher because some tourists who used to pass through Jordan to Syria used to be registered twice because some of them used to spend one night on their way to the destination country and another night on their way back.

With only a few days remaining to Ramadan, Fayez remarked that the biggest challenge now is to convince Gulf tourists to spend the fasting month in the Kingdom, stating that indicators show that holiday reservations during Ramadan have started to pick up.

The sector’s earnings in the first six months of the year amounted to JD949 million, down from JD1.089 billion in the first half of 2010, according to official statistics.

Around 3.124 million tourists visited the country in the January-June period, recording a 14.2 per cent drop compared to the same period last year, when the figure stood at 3.639 million.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities attributed the drop in the number of tourists in the first six months of 2011 to the political turmoil in the region, which led to numerous cancellations by tourists who were planning to visit the region.