Khaberni - Awad Diab Al-Malahmeh wrote:
On 2026/1/17, the Jordanian Association for Science and Culture (Our Warm Cultural Home) invited His Excellency / Michel Nazzal, a sophisticated personality, and a polite man, specialized and deeply knowledgeable in the tourism industry, who has no equal in Jordan, ever.
His Excellency Mr. / Michel Nazzal, a member of the Jordanian Senate, Chairman of the Board of the Jordan Hotel Association, Vice President of the Tourism Promotion Authority, Chairman of the Alpha Tourist Transport Company, Vice President of the Arab Tourism Union, founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the Jordan Community College (Ammon), Chairman of the Board of the Dead Sea Hotels, Chairman of the Board of Mena Hotels, a member of the Board of Royal Jordanian, and a member of the Board of the Jordan Businessmen Association, among many others.
His Excellency Mr. / Michel Nazzal, inherited the tourism profession, the establishment and ownership and management of hotels inherited from his great-grandfather, and historically since 1840, yes, 1840, his great-grandfather owned a hotel in Jerusalem named (Casanova). In 1907, the family established (The Winter Palace Hotel) in Jericho. They also established the (Philadelphia) hotel in Amman in 1925 at the request of Prince Abdullah, opposite the Roman Theater, which was demolished in 1986 despite being one of the most prominent landmarks in Amman and one of its oldest hotels.
The life of Mr. / Michel Nazzal is completely linked to tourism, from his early nails, and he inherited it from his great-grandfather. He holds many official and private positions, and from this, it is concluded that he is a professional in knowing everything related to the tourism sector. From all this, I realized that the meeting would not be ordinary, and that the opportunity is available for many new readings about this sector. Therefore, before he began to speak, I expected him to say what no other Jordanians involved in the tourism industry, as hotel owners or as senior officials who held advanced tourism positions in Jordan, had said.
His words are those of an informed, adept speaker in tourism, proficient, confident in his information, certain of connecting and analyzing information, and anticipating the future of tourism in our beloved homeland.
He spoke not even a single word of flattery, but explained, dissected the tourist situation and delved deep into explaining the obstacles, categorizing them into those that can be solved and overcome, and those that form performance barriers that hinder the growth of the tourism industry.
I will summarize some of the points from his specialized valuable conversation:— The tourism sector is the primary engine of the national economy. An engine from two aspects:— 1)) An engine in terms of tourist arrivals and benefiting all regions of the kingdom. 2)) And an engine because tourism is considered the largest source of hard currency, after having been remittances from expatriates formerly, but now tourism revenues are the first.
And Mr. / Michel Nazzal recounted, reflections of the political situations in the region on tourism in Jordan for example:—
In the thirties of the last century, tourism stopped due to the Palestinian revolution. In the forties, it stopped because of World War II. In the fifties, it stopped due to the Tripartite Aggression on Egypt. In the sixties, it stopped due to the defeat of June. In the seventies, it stopped due to the September events and the October War. In the eighties, it stopped due to the Iran-Iraq War. In the nineties, it stopped due to the invasion of Kuwait, and the war on Iraq. In 2003, it stopped due to the war on Iraq and its occupation. In 2008, tourism stopped because of the global economic recession. In 2012, it stopped due to what was called the Arab Spring. And in 2020, it stopped due to Corona. And in 2023, it stopped due to the war on Gaza.
A prudent and logical sequence, and it never occurred to me that there wasn't a decade or half a decade for this region to witness calm or stability; I see it as moving sands (Sand Dunes), not knowing stability and calm to witness economic prosperity.
Then, Mr. / Michel Nazzal added from his rich information and said: We look at tourism on the basis that it is the operator, the engine, and the supporter of the national economy. And if we want tourism to be a supporter of the national economy, it must create significant job opportunities for Jordanians in various governorates. True, Jordan is considered an open museum, and there are more than (16,000) archaeological sites. But it is not preferable to increase the number of tourist sites now, with such a limited number of tourists.
For your information, the number of tourists who came to Jordan at best reached (1.2) million tourists in 2023. But the figures from the Ministry of Tourism speak of (6) million tourists.
Why (6) million tourists, and why (1.2) million tourists!? By the way, both numbers are correct. The (6) million includes the expatriate Jordanians (+) the Gulf brothers (+) tourists who visit the tourist sites. The Gulf visitor is indeed a tourist, but he does not operate the professions and tourist facilities, because he does not visit tourist, archaeological sites, nor antiques, nor tourist guides, and does not go to the provinces, but they come to Amman, and rent from furnished apartments. Thus, the Gulf brothers do not use the tourism facilities as the foreign tourist does. And likewise, the expatriate Jordanians do not use the facilities and tourist establishments.
Also, the actual tourists who number (1,200,000) tourists are also divided into (3) categories: 1)) A category that comes by sea in large serviced ships, visits Petra for example, and returns to their ship, and after a day or two they leave. 2)) A category that comes through Eilat for one day without overnight stays, and does not use tourist facilities, and some of them come as business people, and if their schedule allows, they visit Petra for example. 3)) About (700,000) remain tourists, and these are the real tourists who visit Jordan in the year.
To invigorate tourism, it is necessary to establish five-star hotels in all governorates of the kingdom. And hotels should only be established by attracting foreign investments. But the return on investment in hotels is (1%) over the past (15) years, and this rate does not encourage investors to come to Jordan and establish five-star hotels.
And he added: There is a deficiency in all governorates of the kingdom; for example, there are deficiencies in tourism in the north: if there were hotels, the tourist could visit Barkesh, Ajloun, Jerash, and others. But the tourist goes from Amman for a few hours to Jerash and returns to Amman.
An outlook and evaluation from an expert, who knew the paths of tourism, its intricacies, problems, and obstacles, thank you, His Excellency Mr. / Michel Nazzal, for everything you graciously provided and described our difficult tourism reality that oscillates between a region that does not calm down politically and militarily, and between the absence of investments that will not come— in the foreseeable future— due to the weak return on investment.
