The ancient city of Petra in Jordan has registered the highest number of visitors since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with 53,896 visitors of various nationalities in March, marking an increase of 292 per cent over the previous month.
The city’s visitors in March were: 43,533 of foreign nationalities, 3,859 from Arab countries and 6,504 Jordanians, according to official figures released by the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA).
The red rose city received 21,557 visitors of all nationalities in February, it said.
Only 4,656 visitors of all nationalities, most of whom were Jordanians and Arabs, made it to Jordan’s main tourism attraction during the month of March 2021, and the ancient city received about 74,413 visitors in the same month of 2019, the figures showed.
Jordanian media reports, citing PDTRA Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Suleiman Farajat, said that the ancient city saw a remarkable improvement in the number of visitors, particularly after the government relaxed Covid-19 restrictions for arrivals from outside the Kingdom in March, which had a positive impact on tourism to the city as well as well as economic activity.
Farajat said all indications point to improvement in visitor numbers to Petra in the next period, adding that the PDTRA continued to further upgrade the infrastructure, transport and other facilities as well as promotional efforts.