The tourists are back and Husein Bdoul is all smiles as he tends his camels in Petrathe spectacular archaeological wonder hidden in a desert canyon of Jordan.
After years of the covid-19 pandemic turning the “Pink City” into a ghost town, the father of seven is back at work offering rides on his ornate dromedaries.
“The sightseeing came back and the numbers are even higher,” said Bdoul, 35, dressed in a Bedouin dress with a red headscarf thrown over his long black hair.
“During the coronavirus pandemic we did not see anyone in Petra“, recalled Bdoul, a disaster for the community where “90% of the people work in sightseeing“.
“We hope in Almighty God that people are still doing well.”
The Jordanian tourist authorities specify that Petra it drew 900,000 visitors last year, close to the record of one million in 2019.
All Jordan it received 4.6 million visitors in 2022, almost four times more than 2020, generating 5.3 billion dollars in revenue for the country.
Petraknown for its impressive temples carved into the pink cliffs, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site included among the new Seven Wonders of the World chosen in an online survey in 2007.
It was built in 312 BC as the capital of the ancient Arab kingdom of the Nabateans, which fell to the Romans in 106 BC.
The city was not known to the West until a Swiss traveler visited it in 1812.
A relief
“This site and the colors are amazing,” 16-year-old French student Alia marveled as she visited a souvenir stall at the site with her mother.
Some 1,700 people earn their living in Petra as tour guides, souvenir sellers or riding donkeys, horses, camels or electric carts.
“We sighed with relief when we saw the tourists return,” said Muhamad Samahin, 16, who was sitting on woven rugs selling drinks inside the Moon Cave, near the Treasury site of Petra.
Suleiman Farajat, head of the Regional Development Authority and Tourism of Petrasaid that the return of visitors exceeded expectations.
At the height of the pandemic “there were days when not a single tourist came” to Petralocated 230 km from the capital Amman.
The recovery was supported by official campaigns in new international markets, low-cost flights and new hotels, Farajat said.
Petra It now has 4,000 rooms and permits have been granted for three new five-star hotels, so its capacity will double from 2019 levels, he added.
“If things continue like this, we could reach, in the next three to four years, the threshold of two million tourists in Petra” every year, he anticipated.
