Российско-Иорданский Деловой Совет

Jordan once again begins to progress on the Russian market

News-RATA / «Jordan is still terra incognita to Russian travel agencies: the country is either unknown or is not offered, because it is associated with the current political problems in the Arab Middle East region. However, everything that is happening there has nothing to do with Jordan. Jordan is an absolutely safe direction, it is a peaceful tourism-oriented country “, – said the CEO of Space Travel Artur Muradyan, speaking at the presentation of “The eighth wonder of the world – a unique Jordan! “. It was held in the framework of the business program of the exhibition “Leisure 2015″.

According to Mr. Muradyan, the Jordanians are very interested in Russian tourists and in the development of Jordan as a MICE-direction. They see Russia as one of the most promising entry markets. In this regard, on October 8 Moscow will host a major conference for travel agencies, in which Jordan Tourism Board leadership as well as representatives of the Ministry of tourism and hospitality industry is going to take part. “On the eve of the meeting we decided to hold an orientation seminar on Jordan to remind the market about the attractiveness of the country, which has all the prerequisites to become popular among the Russians,” – said Mr. Muradyan. Meanwhile, the tourist flow from Russia is still very small. Mostly, VIP customers go there. About 90% of the tourists go there on their own, and the rest take sightseeing tours.

Today, only Royal Jordanian offers flights from Moscow to Jordan and the flights are three times a week. “Russia has no an air carrier. As to charter flights, they are unprofitable because the country has no hotels of category 2-3*, which would help to attract passengers to these flights, “- said Artur Muradyan. Therefore, if there were a Russian air carrier, it would make plane tickets cheaper. Now the cost of the tour for two people starts from $ 3-3,5 thousand for 10 nights in the 4-5 * hotel including breakfast, plane tickets, but without any sightseeing tours: “But sightseeing tours are expensive there mainly due to individual transfers. Group sightseeing coach tours would be four times cheaper”. Mr. Muradyan noted that the number of tourists from Russia to Jordan is stable; sales are on the same level as last year’s figures.

At the meeting on October 8 Russian tourist industry will be represented by two tour operators Space Travel and “Art Tour”, which has been dealing with this direction for a long time already. They will gather their partner travel agencies at the event. General Director of “Art Tour” Dmitry Arutyunov told RATA-news that the event is organized timely because the high season starts in September in Jordan. Besides, the number of Russian tourists in the country has been reducing considerably in the past year. “In my travel agency it is 20% less”. Mr. Arutyunov agrees that the demand for Jordan is low due to its location in the volatile region of the Middle East: “However, Israel and Egypt, which are situated in the same region, has remained popular tourist destinations for many years. A lot depends on advertising. Both Israel and Egypt constantly promote themselves so that these countries are familiar to tourists. I think Jordan Tourism Board is launching a long-awaited advertising campaign in Russia within the October event”.

Jordan is still regarded as a quite expensive destination, but the quality of service and holidays is also very high. As to Dead Sea, there are 5 *Spa Hotel and luxury resorts there. This way it differs from the Israeli seaside of the Dead Sea, where people mainly go for treatment.

“It is high time to promote Jordan in order to attract attention to it. Unfortunately, nowadays we have a generation of managers in travel agencies who do not understand why tourists should go to this country,” – stressed Dmitry Arutyunov.

www.arafnews.ru

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