Petra, the ancient Jordanian city adorned with ancient rose-colored buildings and famed historical sites has suffered recently from a decline in tourism. The city at one time was Jordan’s main attraction for tourist coming to the Middle Eastern Kingdom. The Jordanian city only experienced 596,502 tourists in 2014, a 6.22% decrease as shown by the visitor statistics on the Petra National Trust website.
Petra has drawn in tourists in the past because of its ancient history and beautiful rock cut rose colored buildings, which earned the city the nickname of Rose City. It remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, but was established as early as 312 BC historians think.
Described as “a rose red city half as old as time” in a prize winning poem by William Burgon, Petra use to bring the majority of tourists to Jordan. Jordan’s tourism accounts for 10-12% of the country’s GDP, resulting in $3.4 billion. But that has been an issue as of late as plane ticket sales and tourists are declining.
War in the Middle East can potentially be attributed to the decline. Jordan’s involvement with anti-Islamic state coalition drew worldwide attention, participating in airstrikes against Syria. Syria retaliated with burning a Jordanian pilot to death in a televised event. The dark images of war came close to home and led almost immediately to a surge of cancellations of hotel stays.
The Jordanian government is trying to recuperate tourist sales by cutting prices, including waving some airport fees. But experts say a complete recovery is doubtful as neighboring Syria and Iraq sink deeper into a war-torn state. “The instability in the region affected the economic indicators, mainly tourism, as well as foreign direct investment,” said government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani.
Jordan, in 2010 had a strong tourism industry with 8.2 million in that year alone. By 2013 that number had dropped to almost half, at 5.4 million. The decline accelerated this year with overnight visitors down by %50 in the first 2 months of 2015. Tourism also brings jobs to the country, which they can’t afford to lose, as the unemployment rate is close to 12%. Still, the Jordanian economy is doing slightly better than the regional average with 3.4% increase projected for 2015.
