PETRA, Jordan/LONDON: Enas Al-Hinti has cut staff pay in half and asked workers to take unpaid leave in an effort to keep her hotel in ancient Petra open as Western holidaymakers fearful of conflict shun destinations in the Middle East.
A crisis across the region’s tourism industry since the start of the Israel-Hamas war 13 months ago is being felt acutely in Jordan, whose border with Israel along the Red Sea and Dead Sea is studded with beach resorts.
Sites such as Petra, Wadi Rum and crusader castles have been drawing visitors for decades — more than one million a year before the war, mainly Americans and Europeans.
But Reuters reporters on a recent trip to the city carved from rose-colored rock — Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction — found businesses boarded up by their owners.
“There are no revenues, it’s all losses,” Al-Hinti, who runs the Nomads hotel, said.
Data and interviews with seven hotel and business owners and tour operators underline the damage to the tourist industry, which last year made up 12.5 percent of the economy.
Flight ticket bookings to Jordan, which is not involved in the conflict, were down 35 percent year-on-year between Sept. 16 and Oct. 4, data from travel intelligence firm ForwardKeys shows.
The situation has worsened since Iran’s drone strike attack on Israel in April and following tit-for-tat military strikes between Israel and Iran, said Seif Saudi, the managing director of Amman-based in Jordan Direct Tours.
“Things were starting to look up for October, but the second attack erased all those gains.”
LONG-TERM DAMAGE
The tourist industry across the Middle East is struggling. Flight bookings to the region are down six percent year-on-year since the war erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ForwardKeys data shows.
Bookings to Israel and Lebanon fell even more sharply than those to Jordan between Sept. 16 and Oct. 4, while Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have seen smaller declines.
The recent regional escalation of the conflict, including intensified Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group, has dashed hopes for a recovery in the cooler autumn months, a key season for Middle East tourism.
International tour groups like Intrepid and Riviera Travel said they canceled tours to Jordan and Egypt after Iran showered Israel with ballistic missiles on Oct. 1.
Hotel occupancy rates in Petra have fallen on average to as low as 10 percent, estimates Abdullah Hasanat, president of the Petra Hotels Association.
“We are searching for a savior. All the investments in Petra are in intensive care. When tourism stopped, bookings stopped,” Hasanat, who owns a hotel himself, said. Most international carriers have halted flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv, but some, such as Ryanair, have also paused flights to Jordan, in part due to its proximity to Israeli and Lebanese airspace.
Hotel owners said Ryanair’s decision in particular meant far fewer Western tourists came to the country. Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said in October it was a “sensible” move given the closure of airspace at the time.
Before the war, Christian tourists making pilgrimages to Israel often also tagged on a trip to Jordan.
WHAT’S NEXT
Business owners say the damage will be long-term.
Future bookings have evaporated, forcing hotel managers like Al-Hinti to dip into their financial reserves to continue paying salaries. She is keeping her hotel open, but with fewer floors available.
“We are facing next year with a drop of not less than 90-95 percent (in bookings),” said Nabih Riyal, CEO of Plaza Tours, which runs holidays with European and American operators.
Jordan’s tourism sector has survived previous crises related to the prolonged conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Tourism Minister Lina Annab said.
“This calls for us to really focus on our most resilient markets, which are not as affected by the situation,” Annab said, adding that visitors are still coming from neighboring countries.
Some Western tourists are undeterred too.
“We knew that the trip would be canceled if it was really risky,” said Dorothy Lawson, a tourist from California, walking around Petra in late October. “They said we could come. So we came and we’re really glad we did.”
But businesses that rely on big crowds are struggling to survive.
“We used to have 4,000 visitors every day,” said Marcus Massoud, a salesman in one of Petra’s many souvenir shops.
“Now we have 300 to 400. It’s not like before.”
Jordan’s tourism industry struggling as Gaza war deters visitors
https://arab.news/gu7wx
Jordan’s tourism industry struggling as Gaza war deters visitors
- Sites such as Petra, Wadi Rum and crusader castles have been drawing visitors for decades
- Flight ticket bookings to Jordan are down 35 percent year-on-year between Sept. 16 and Oct. 4
Israel’s attorney general tells Netanyahu to reexamine extremist security minister’s role
- National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized for interfering in police matters
JERUSALEM, Nov 14 : Israel’s Attorney General told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reevaluate the tenure of his far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing his apparent interference in police matters, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
The news channel published a copy of a letter written by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in which she described instances of “illegitimate interventions” in which Ben-Gvir, who is tasked with setting general policy, gave operational instructions that threaten the police’s apolitical status.
“The concern is that the government’s silence will be interpreted as support for the minister’s behavior,” the letter said.
Officials at the Justice Ministry could not be reached for comment and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
Ben-Gvir, who heads a small ultra-nationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, wrote on social media after the letter was published: “The attempted coup by (the Attorney General) has begun. The only dismissal that needs to happen is that of the Attorney General.”
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian Al-Bustan community center in Jerusalem
- Al-Bustan Association functioned as a primary community center in which Silwan’s youth and families ran cultural and social activities
LONDON: Israeli forces demolished the office of the Palestinian Al-Bustan Association in occupied East Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Silwan, whose residents are under threat of Israeli eviction orders.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Culture condemned on Thursday the demolition of Al-Bustan by Israeli bulldozers and a military police force.
The ministry said that “(Israeli) occupation’s arrogant practices against cultural and community institutions in Palestine, and specifically in Jerusalem, are targeting the Palestinian identity, in an attempt to obliterate it.”
Founded in 2004, the Al-Bustan Association functioned as a primary community center in which Silwan’s youth and families ran cultural and social activities alongside hosting meetings for diplomatic delegations and Western journalists who came to learn about controversial Israeli policies in the area.
Al-Bustan said in a statement that it served 1,500 people in Silwan, most of them children, who enrolled in educational, cultural and artistic workshops. In addition to the Al-Bustan office, Israeli forces also demolished a home in the neighborhood belonging to the Al-Qadi family.
Located less than a mile from Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s southern ancient wall, Silwan has a population of 65,000 Palestinians, some of them under threat of Israeli eviction orders.
In past years, Israeli authorities have been carrying out archaeological digging under Palestinian homes in Silwan, resulting in damage to these buildings, in search of the three-millennial “City of David.”
Israeli strike kills 12 after hitting civil defense center in Lebanon’s Baalbek, governor tells Reuters
- Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack
CAIRO: An Israeli strike killed 12 people after it hit a civil defense center in Lebanon’s city of Baalbek on Thursday, the regional governor told Reuters adding that rescue operations were ongoing.
Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack on the Lebanese city, health ministry reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lebanese civil defense official Samir Chakia said: “The Civil Defense Center in Baalbek has been targeted, five Civil Defense rescuers were killed.”
Bachir Khodr the regional governor said more than 20 rescuers had been at the facility at the time of the strike.
‘A symbol of resilience’ — workers in Iraq complete reconstruction of famous Mosul minaret
- Workers complete reconstruction of 12th-century minaret of Al-Nuri Mosque
- Tower and mosque were blown by Daesh extremists in 2017
High above the narrow streets and low-rise buildings of Mosul’s old city, beaming workers hoist an Iraqi flag into the sky atop one of the nation’s most famous symbols of resilience.
Perched precariously on scaffolding in high-vis jackets and hard hats, the workers celebrate a milestone in Iraq’s recovery from the traumatic destruction and bloodshed that once engulfed the city.
On Wednesday, the workers placed the last brick that marked the completed reconstruction of the 12th-century minaret of Al-Nuri Mosque. The landmark was destroyed by Daesh in June 2017 shortly before Iraqi forces drove the extremist group from the city.
Known as Al-Hadba, or “the hunchback,” the 45-meter-tall minaret, which famously leant to one side, dominated the Mosul skyline for centuries. The tower has been painstakingly rebuilt as part of a UNESCO project, matching the traditional stone and brick masonry and incorporating the famous lean.
“Today UNESCO celebrates a landmark achievement,” the UN cultural agency’s Iraq office said. “The completion of the shaft of the Al-Hadba Minaret marks a new milestone in the revival of the city, with and for the people of Mosul.
“UNESCO is grateful for the incredible teamwork that made this vision a reality. Together, we’ve created a powerful symbol of resilience, a true testament to international cooperation. Thank you to everyone involved in this journey.”
The restoration of the mosque is part of UNESCO’s Revive the Spirit of Mosul project, which includes the rebuilding of two churches and other historic sites. The UAE donated $50 million to the project and UNESCO said that the overall Al-Nuri Mosque complex restoration will be finished by the end of the year.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay celebrated the completion of the minaret by posting “We did it!” on social media site X.
She thanked donors, national and local authorities in Iraq and the experts and professionals, “many of whom are Moslawis,” who worked to rebuild the minaret.
“Can’t wait to return to Mosul to celebrate the full completion of our work,” she said.
The Al-Nuri mosque was built in the second half of the 12th century by the Seljuk ruler Nur Al-Din.
After Daesh seized control of large parts of Iraq in 2014, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of its so-called caliphate from inside the mosque.
Three years later, the extremists detonated explosives to destroy the mosque and minaret as Iraqi forces battled to expel them from the city. Thousands of civilians were killed in the fighting and much of Mosul was left in ruins.
US hands Lebanon draft truce proposal -two political sources
- The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Hezbollah
BEIRUT: The US ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri on Thursday to halt fighting between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources told Reuters, without revealing details.
The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but efforts have yet to yield a result. Israel launched a stepped-up air and ground campaign in late September after cross-border clashes in parallel with the Gaza war.
