AMMAN — During the
pandemic, car rental agencies have opted for a
difficult choice to make up for losses: they sold part of their fleets.
اضافة اعلان
However, now that the Kingdom has entered the second phase of its
gradual reopening plan and
tourism is slowly beginning to rebound, demand is
rising, and there are fewer cars available for tourists hoping to visit
Jordan’s famous destinations.
"Because of the pandemic we had to sell almost 5,000 cars
because we had some debts and we had no solution except selling some of the
cars,” said Ahmad Emad, the owner of a car rental agency, in an interview with
Jordan News.
"Nowadays, we are renting cars, especially to foreigners and
expatriates,” Emad added. “Our situation is better than before, but the problem
is that we do not have enough cars to meet everyone's needs."
"No one supported us (during the pandemic), even banks, they
have not given us the needed facilities. I do not know what upcoming days would
bring to us, all I know is that everyone is terrified of the uncertain
future."
According to Abu Moaad Khaldoun, a manager at Monte Carlo Rentals,
the company’s SUV fleet has all been rented out or booked, mostly by customers
from Arab Gulf countries, but also by other foreigners.
"We have a lot of reservations from foreigners and Jordanians
who are coming from the
Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait. This year (demand) is higher than other years,
because of the COVID-19 situation. A lot of them are preferring to come by
plane and rent their cars here in Jordan instead of bringing their own."
According to Khaldoun, renting out cars instead of bringing them
in from Gulf states is "the cheaper option," and it is more
convenient for tourists.
Khaldoun also believes that travel "will increase between the
countries during and after Eid Al-Adha," and expects car rentals, notably
in the capital, to surge when foreigners and Jordanians working abroad come
over.
"Here in Jordan, it’s going better and better,” he said. “All
the sectors are open right now, and the main sector is the tourism sector. So
it's good now that it is increasing, but we prefer to wait until after Eid
Al-Adha to see.”
Meanwhile, Reliable Car Rental, and agency located on Airport Road
in Amman, has also seen a strong increase in their car rentals compared to the
previous stagnant year, reporting that their business is more or less back to
pre-pandemic levels.
"Nothing has changed for us at all. Every year, we see the
same spike in business, except during COVID-19. For the last year and a half,
we haven't had that, we haven't had tourists or business. But this is going
back to normal now," said an employee from the agency in an interview with
Jordan News.
The head of the union for car rental agency owners, Saleh Jallouq,
told
Jordan News that "I cannot deny that the number of SUV cars 9in
the rental market) is smaller than that of last year, but at the same time, it
meets the needs of the renters."
Jallouq noted that his agency, which had a fleet of 13,000 cars
before the pandemic, has had to sell more than 3,000 cars to compensate for
losses when the tourism sector came to a halt.
Despite the rising demand, Jallouq believes that the sector’s
losses have been too severe to be compensated in one high season.
"People think that in the
summer our conditions get better, but I can say that those two or three months
are not enough for us to compensate our great losses."
"I can say that we are truly suffering and that our
conditions are really bad,” Jallouq added. “If the government does not try to
support us and find us some suitable solutions to cover our obligations we will
be in big trouble."
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