Jordan launches ‘religious tourism’ campaign

Jordan has launched a campaign to attract sightseers from Muslim countries to boost the domestic tourism sector, reported al-Hayat newspaper.

“The board launched a campaign to promote Islamic tourism in Jordan and attract tourists from Muslim countries, especially from Malaysia and Indonesia, given that Jordan is a base and a gateway for holy Muslim and Christian shrines,” said Abdul Razaq Arabiyat, the managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board, in a released statement.

The campaign aims to boost the profile of religious sites in Jordan as an attraction for foreign tourists and seeks to promote religious tourism as “a main source of tourism revenues in the kingdom,” added Arabiyat.

A number of promotional programs have been adopted by the board to attract those Muslim tourists intending to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage, who then continue on with their religious tour by traveling to Jordan and Palestine.

“We’ve signed a number of agreements with tourism companies in Indonesia and Malaysia on visiting religious shrines in Jordan and Palestine… such as [the site of the] battles of Islamic conquests,” said Arabiyat.