(MENAFN- Jordan Times) Jordan should promote its tourist attractions more aggressively in China in order to increase the number of Chinese visitors to the Kingdom, according to a Chinese diplomat.
"We regularly encourage Chinese people to visit Jordan, which not only enjoys stability and security, but also enjoys a diverse line-up of tourism attractions such as the Dead Sea, Jerash and Aqaba," Chen Xingzhong, counsellor and deputy head of mission at the Chinese embassy in Amman, said in an interview this week.
"Jordan should do more and Jordanian tour operators, as well as authorities in charge of tourism, should conduct campaigns in China to attract visitors to the Kingdom. The current promotion for Jordan's attractions in China is below the desired levels," he said.
The diplomat noted that Jordan's rose-red city of Petra came second after the Great Wall of China in the global vote for the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.
According to Chen, about 15,000 Chinese visited Jordan in 2011 compared to 10,000 in 2010.
"The number of Chinese coming to Jordan is modest. There is room for more, especially as about 60 million Chinese travel annually to different destinations across the world," he said.
"If Jordan can attract just 1 per cent of those Chinese tourists, the number of visitors to the Kingdom will rise sharply," he said.
Gabray Ye, an outbound tour operator from Shanghai, told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of a tourism conference at the Dead Sea on Tuesday that Jordan was not well promoted in Chinese media, noting that five million Chinese tourists travel to the Middle East each year, most of them to Dubai, Egypt and Turkey.
Chen, who said the number of Jordanians studying Chinese in the Kingdom is on the rise, added that there is a need for more well trained Chinese-speaking tour guides in Jordan.
"If there are guides in Jordan who master Chinese, it will be more convenient and easier to attract tourists from China," said the diplomat.
Speaking at Tuesday's conference, Jordan Tourism Board Managing Director Abdul Razzaq Arabiyat said the board was planning to focus on the Chinese market as it stepped up promotional campaigns in several countries.
"We will participate in an exhibition in China, meet tour operators there and invite a number of Chinese journalists to write about the Kingdom," he said.
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