AMMAN — The
visit of a delegation of French pilgrims highlights Jordan’s position on the
global map for faith-based tourism, contributes to increasing the number of
visitors and extending the length of their stay, tourism officials affirmed.
اضافة اعلان
On Monday, a
delegation of French Christian pilgrims from France concluded a visit to Jordan
upon an invitation from the
Jordan Tourism Board (JTB).
The delegates,
who represent several pilgrimage agencies in France, paid several visits to
archeological sites and held meetings with tourism stakeholders including
Minister of Tourism Nayef Fayez, JTB managing director Abdul Razzaq Arabiat,
directors of archeological sites, travel agents, and others.
The sites they
visited included Jerash, Mar Elias and Mount Nebo and Church of the Lady of the
Mountain in Anjara, Ajloun, and the Baptism site where they performed masses.
Director of the
Catholic Center for Studies and Media, Father Rifaat Badr said that “after this
visit, the French started thinking of doubling Jordan’s share of visits and
number of night’s pilgrims would stay.”
Badr said that
Jordan will become a stand-alone destination instead of being part of combined
trips that include other countries.
This visit is
important for the Kingdom’s tourism as it helps making the Jordanian sites more
popular in Europe not only in France, member of the board of directors of
Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents Mahmoud Khasawneh said.
It came in the
right time after the crisis caused by COVID-19 and will have a direct positive
impact on increasing the numbers of tourists when tourism returns to normal,
said Khasawneh.
He noted that
around 17 Jordanian travel agents met with the delegates and discussed means of
cooperation to plan and conduct future trips.
According to
Kasawneh, the visit came as a stage of a plan by JTB to promote faith-based
tourism in Jordan, calling for following up on the plan to ensure increasing the
numbers of visitors in this type of tourism.
Imad Haddad, a
travel agent, described the visit as positive, as it contributes to introducing
Jordan to the European countries as a core pilgrimage destination.
Jordan is a part
of the Holy Land and has more than 260 Biblical sites including the Baptism
Sites of Jesus Christ,
Mount Nebo, Machareus, Mar Elias, and the Church of the
Lady of the Mountain which are five pilgrimage sites designated by the Catholic
Church, Haddad told
Jordan News.
Mohammad Hammad,
a tourist guide who accompanied the delegation during the week-long visit, said
that his guests were impressed with everything in Jordan especially safety
measures and organization.
Hammad said the
existence of several Christian pilgrimage sites, specifically the five sites
that were chosen by the Catholic Church in the year 2000, motivated the
delegates to decide marketing Jordan as a stand-alone destination for Christian
pilgrimage.
In the past, most
pilgrimage visits were part of a combined trip to many countries including
Jordan.
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