AMMAN — The
Jordan Hotel Association (JHA) told
Jordan News that more than 3,500 hotel workers had been vaccinated across the Kingdom, including all the employees at the
Dead Sea tourist zones. The milestone comes as part of Jordan’s ongoing attempts to reopen tourism, one of the country’s vital sectors.
اضافة اعلان
Abd Al-Hakim Al-Hindi, head of the JHA, said that the association in cooperation with the
National Center for Security and Crisis Management (NCSCM) launched a vaccination campaign for workers in the tourism and hotel sector eight days ago and that it is still ongoing.
Hindi anticipated that the campaign will conclude within a month.
The campaign targets all 52,000 workers in the tourism sector, of whom 23,500 are in the hotel sector. According to Hindi, the campaign is vaccinating about 500 people a day.
Hilal Al-Hlalat, who works at a hotel, told
Jordan News: “I took the Chinese vaccine and everything is excellent.”
He added that the campaign was organized and that, because of the nature of his job, he was relieved to have gotten the vaccination.
“I used to be afraid of the vaccine, but later I felt that the vaccine has become necessary, and I advise all workers in the tourism sector to take the vaccine,” he said.
According to Hindi, the vaccination team is ready to go to any restaurant or hotel to vaccinate employees at their workplace if they number 50 or more.
Hindi said that “the campaign began in the Dead Sea, where 1,409 employees have been vaccinated in various Dead Sea hotels, covering all workers in that area. Workers in the tourism sector are being vaccinated in Amman now, and then we will move to the rest of the governorates except for the Golden Triangle (Aqaba, Petra, and Wadi Rum) which fall under Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA).”
The ASEZA, in cooperation with the Petra Region Authority, has begun carrying out vaccination campaigns in order to establish safe areas, and Aqaba has already started to receive a number of foreign tourists.
Hindi stressed the need for vaccination campaigns in order to reach a “safe summer” and said that this step aims to encourage tourism in its external and domestic forms, stressing the importance of domestic tourism as “a source of the national income.”
Hindi added that the campaign has been running smoothly thus far. “The campaign came in coordination with the NCSCM. The costs of the campaign are entirely at the expense of the association, with the exception of the costs of vaccines which are covered by the NCSCM.”
“This is an excellent step in order to ensure the safety of workers in the tourism sector,” said Salem Al-Omari, rapporteur of the Tourism Committee at the Lower House, adding that he encourages all workers in the tourism sector to take the vaccine for the benefit of workers and visitors.
“This step is important for everyone to feel safe, especially those who are working in the hotel and tourism sector,” Abeer Al-Dabbas, regional director of Hilton Hotels Group and the King Hussein Conference Center, told
Jordan News. “This step will greatly impact tourism in general and domestic tourism in particular.”
Read more National
.jpg)
.jpg)
