Jordan- Tourism revenues hold steady 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Tourism revenues witnessed a slight growth in the first two months of the year despite a drop in the total number of visitors to the Kingdom, official figures showed on Sunday.

According to a Central Bank of Jordan report, the total number of tourists who visited the Kingdom in January and February decreased by 6 per cent compared to the same period of 2011, from 980,359 to 919,859.

Revenues generated in the first two months of 2012, however, showed a slight rise of 0.2 per cent, according to the report, which showed that revenues generated in the period in question stood at JD332 million compared with JD331 million in the same period of 2011.

Despite the drop in the total number of visitors, the report showed that there was a 5 per cent increase in the number of overnight visitors, from 556,049 to 583,898.

Same-day visitors accounted for most of the overall decline, with a 20 per cent drop from 424,309 to 335,961.

The number of visitors to the Kingdom's major tourism sites also decreased in the January-February period, with the Baptism Site witnessing the biggest drop of 38 per cent. Figures showed that 10,740 tourists visited the site in the first two months of 2010 compared with 17,314 tourists in the same period of 2011.

Although Petra registered the highest number of visitors among Jordanian tourist sites in the first two months of this year, the number fell by 26.8 per cent compared to the same period a year before.

The number of tourists who visited the rose-red city in January and February dropped to 81,022 from 110,745 in the first two months of last year.