My Holiday Expert

Jordan has enjoyed a boom in UK visitors so far this year with January arrivals up by around 77% compared to the same month in 2009.

The destination welcomed 6,300 visitors from the UK last month compared to 3,500 in January 2009. This increase comes on the back of a successful 2009 when UK numbers rose by 3% to 63,000 despite the recession.

The growth is reward for the proactive approach of Jordan Tourism Board’s UK office which ran a series of fam trips, agent training and marketing initiatives during 2009.

Earlier this month the tourist board took six luxury agents on the ttgluxury Experience to Jordan, to discover the best the country has to offer. The agents stayed in three hotels and visited Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea and Aqaba. You can read the full coverage of the trip in the Spring issue of ttgluxury, out in March.

JTB country manager for UK and Ireland David Symes said: “We have considerably increased our travel trade budget this year to drive business to Jordan through tour operators and travel agents.

“With such promising figures so early in the year, we are confident that visitor numbers to Jordan will show a month on month increase over 2009 figures throughout 2010.”