{"id":20452,"date":"2013-12-07T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-07T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/should-i-visit-jordan-2\/"},"modified":"2013-12-07T08:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T08:01:00","slug":"should-i-visit-jordan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2013\/12\/should-i-visit-jordan-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Visit Jordan?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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World famous Petra should be on your ‘bucket list’ of sites to see. (R Eime)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/dl>\n

World traveller, Roderick Eime<\/a>, test drives the current Jordanian tourist experience and tries to allay travellers’ concerns.<\/b><\/p>\n

With high profile and widely reporting troubles in neighbouring Egypt, Syria and on-and-off in Lebanon, travellers are avoiding the relatively safe Kingdom of Jordan. But are these fears warranted?<\/p>\n

Anecdotal reports suggest that tourism numbers are down by as much as 60 per cent and the tiny kingdom (pop. 6.3 million) is suffering from this major loss in foreign earnings. Unlike other Arabian nations, Jordan does not have oil in any useful quantity and relies heavily on tourism dollars to supplement meagre exports of fruit, vegetables and minerals. [More Info at World Factbook<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Jordan<\/a> is also bearing more than its fair share of refugees from the former Palestine and now Syria and relies heavily on support from the UN to perform this onerous humanitarian task. This makes Australia’s complaints about a few thousand boat people decidedly churlish by comparison.<\/p>\n

In November I travelled to Jordan for a whirlwind tour as a guest of the Jordanian government and, along with a small contingent of fellow journalists, we toured from Amman and Wadi Rum, to the Dead Sea and as far south as Aqaba.<\/p>\n

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My lasting memory of this short experience will be the staggering UNESCO -listed archaeological sites like Petra and the otherworldly Dead Sea and Wadi Rum<\/a>. Of course, not forgetting that a tourists’ impression of any country will almost always relate directly back to its citizens and this was also one of my pleasing discoveries.<\/p>\n

Anybody who has spent an appreciable amount of time in a Middle Eastern country living among its people will attest to this and the Jordanians are exemplary of traditional Arab hospitality and good manners. Like anywhere, visitors should acquaint themselves to local culture and customs and while Jordan is much more tolerant of Western liberalism, basic courtesies should be observed namely modest clothing in public and knowledge of gestures that do not translate favourably. Eg the common ‘okay’ hand signal means quite something else in Jordan!<\/p>\n

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A Bedouin tent camp in Wadi Rum delivers an authentic experience (R Eime)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Coincidence would have it that I met an longtime travel industry colleague while in Aqaba. She had spent the last few years in Jordan working on development projects and regaled me on the wonders of the country and its people. She had nothing but praise and delight and reinforced the fantastic tourism potential still to be tapped in Jordan. For example, Petra, which we know mainly from the single edifice known as The Treasury, is in fact a 264 square mile site which is only 20 per cent excavated. Most visitors spend just a few hours, while to explore this vast site in something like its entirety would take two or three days.<\/p>\n

Amman, the capital, is served by Queen Alia International Airport (Code: AMM) and is Jordan’s largest airport. Major airlines like Etihad, Royal Jordanian, Qatar Airways and Air France fly there along with a myriad smaller regional airlines. A new terminal was opened in 2013 and I found the whole arrival and departure procedure experience one of the most effortless I’ve encountered anywhere at a major terminal.<\/p>\n

In short and without the benefit of a crystal ball, my advice would be if you are considering travel to Jordan, do it sooner rather than later. Right now tourist numbers are down making your travel experience more relaxed with the possibility of enjoying sites like Petra without noisy, scrambling hordes.<\/p>\n

Things to know about visiting Jordan:<\/b><\/p>\n