Five year tourism program between Lebanon and Jordan

The Ministry of Tourism signed last week a tourism executive program with the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities that extends over a five-year phase. It implements the tourism convention signed between the two countries in 1964.

The program includes activating, marketing, and promoting mutual tourism, in order to achieve common goals for developing international and regional tourism in both countries.

According to Jean Abboud, President of the Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (ATTAL) activities in this direction began last year, but were made official with this program. “We have been better beneficiaries of Jordanian tourism,” he said. Around 74,000 Jordanians have visited the country in 2014, topping the Arab visitors for the past four years. “The number of Lebanese, however, visiting Jordan is much lower,” he said.

Abboud said that this agreement aims at attracting more Lebanese to explore Jordan. He said that locals are mostly interested in visiting Aqaba and the Dead Sea. Packages this summer for four days in a five-star hotel cost around $700. He said that four daily flights are take off from Beirut International Airport to Jordan.

As for promoting and marketing tourism, the agreement entails that both countries take the necessary measures to facilitate the flow of tourist traffic and calls on organizers and travel agents in both countries to develop joint programs for groups at promotional prices.

The ministry stressed the importance of encouraging the establishment of joint tourism projects by providing all legal facilities and privileges for tourist investments in the two countries, in addition to organizing an annual meeting for investors from the private sector in both countries to get to know the available investment advantages. A joint technical committee will be formed to follow up on its implementation.