Jordan’s tourism revenue declines by 2.3% in 2024
AMMAN — The Kingdom’s tourism revenue in 2024 amounted to JD7.239 billion, marking a 2.3 per cent decline compared to 2023, data by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) showed on Tuesday.
According to the data, this decrease was attributed to a 3.9 per cent drop in the number of tourists, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The CBJ data also showed an increase in tourism revenue from Jordanian expatriates by 7.7 per cent and from non-Jordanian Arab tourists by 12per cent.
In contrast, tourism revenue from European, American and other nationalities declined by 54 per cent, 35.2 per cent, and 15.3 per cent, respectively.
On the other hand, the data revealed a 4.1 per cent increase in spending on outbound tourism during 2024, reaching JD1.937 billion compared to 2023.
Meanwhile, remittances from Jordanian expatriates to the Kingdom increased by 2.9 per cent during the first 11 months of 2024.
According to preliminary data issued by CBJ, remittances totalled JD3.3 billion, compared to JD3.17 billion during the same period in 2023, Petra added.
In 2023, the Kingdom’s income from tourism increased by 27.4 per cent, according to previous data issued by the CBJ.
The country’s tourism income reached JD7.41 billion in 2023, up from JD5.254 billion in 2022, where the number of tourists who visited Jordan in 2023 totalled 6,353,800 visitors.
The number of visitors in 2023 rose by around 25.8 per cent when compared with the number of tourists in 2022.
An International Monetary Fund report said in June 2024 that the current impact of the war on Gaza is concentrated on the tourism sector as a result of the cancellations by tourists from advanced economies, which account for a third of tourism revenues.
Bookings cancelled in the last quarter of 2023 reached at least 65 per cent, largely due to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, according to official estimates.