LONDON: Ryanair’s plan to launch new routes to Jordan is a “historic” move that could boost the kingdom’s tourism to pre-Arab Spring levels.
Industry providers welcomed Sunday’s announcement that the low-cost carrier will roll out 14 new routes to Jordan in 2018, bringing around 500,000 customers to the country a year and opening up new source markets from Europe.
“We put a lot of time and energy into bringing Ryanair to Jordan; this has been 10 years in the making,” said Mahmoud Freihat, area marketing manager at the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), which is responsible for marketing the country abroad.
“It’s a big investment from Ryanair. It shows their trust in Jordan,” he added.
By the end of 2018, Amman will be connected to 10 new cities, including Milan, Budapest, Bologna, Krakow, Bucharest, Paphos, Prague, Brussels, Vilnius, and Warsaw; with a further four flights to Aqaba from Athens, Rome, Cologne and Sofia.
British taxes priced out a Ryanair flight to the UK but the government is looking at other low-cost carriers in the region to fill the gap, Freihat said.
The routes tap into the lucrative low-cost carrier market, opening the country up to a new sector of travelers.
“Low-cost airlines in Europe have changed the way people travel; people look at where they fly and go there,” said Suleiman Farajat, deputy chief commissioner for the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority.
Commentators pointed to a huge gap in the market in Jordan, where low-cost carrier penetration is approximately 10 percent, compared to Morocco, another MENA country on the Mediterranean, where it’s around 40 percent.
In the past, easyJet operated flights between Europe and Jordan but pulled out in 2014. Back then, Farajat said, few international tourists were coming to the region, but now, “Demand is high and it’s the right time.”
Tourism in Jordan is on the mend following a significant setback in the years after the Arab Spring. Figures released by the Central Bank of Jordan showed a 12.5 percent increase in 2017 tourism receipts.
Visitors numbers dwindled between 2011 and 2015, despite Jordan remaining stable throughout the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
However, an attack by armed gunmen on a tourism site in the city of Karak in Dec. 2016 killed 10 people, including a Canadian tourist, and left dozens injured.
“Improvement in air connectivity definitely has a positive impact on destinations’ tourism industry, as it increases tourist arrivals, spending and job creation,” World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Research Director, Rochelle Turner told Arab News,
“Jordan has a wealth of amazing cultural and natural treasures for visitors to admire. The launch of new air routes to Jordan is good news for the country’s economy.”
According to the WTTC, travel and tourism’s total contribution to GDP was nearly 20 percent in 2016 and is forecast to rise to almost 23 percent by 2027.
“In the last two years tourism has really started to pick up - 2017 was a really good year,” Farajat, said, adding that the challenge now is to enhance tourism infrastructure to meet rising demand.
The new routes to Amman and Aqaba will bring a “tremendous increase” in visitors to Petra, he added, explaining that Jordan’s most famous attraction acts as a “barometer” for the sector.
About 620,000 tourists visited Petra in 2017, a 34 percent increase on the previous year. This year, Farajat hopes the numbers will climb to 800,000. “The benchmark is 2010 when we had one million,” he said.
Muna Haddad, managing director at Baraka, a sustainable tourism company in Jordan, is anticipating a “broader base” of visitors. “This is definitely going to expand the range of groups interested in visiting Jordan.
“Other low-cost carriers have been in Jordan before and closed down … having a government serious about creating a hospitable environment for them is really historic.”
Industry insiders have credited Jordan’s tourism minister Lina Mazhar Annab with breaking through the impasse to finalise the deal, with incentives for Ryanair, such as exemption from certain taxes and reduced landing fees.
In a statement announcing the launch, Annab said: “Ryanair’s decision to fly to Jordan sends a loud and clear message about the diversity and the untapped potential of Jordan’s tourism product. It also shows confidence in the tourism industry in Jordan, which has witnessed double-digit growth in the past year.”
Freihat said more routes will likely be added in the years ahead. “We really believe this puts Jordan in the middle of Europe,” he added anticipating that the new flights to Aqaba, a sleepy airport in south, will open up new options for visitors to Jordan’s major sites.
With Petra just an hour and a half away, Wadi Rum 45 minutes and the Dead Sea an hour and a half, he anticipates Europeans coming on long weekends to see the sites, bringing more business to single destinations and benefitting communities reliant on tourism across the country.
“We are now able to make the Kingdom more accessible to a broader segment of potential tourists … whose impact on the local economy will be substantial on every level of the tourism sector supply-chain,” Managing Director of the Jordan Tourism Board Abed Al-Razzaq Arabiyat said in a statement.
Budget flights to Europe will breathe new life into Jordan tourism
Budget flights to Europe will breathe new life into Jordan tourism
UN launches probe into first international staff killed by unidentified strike in Rafah
- Retired Indian army officer Waibhav Anil Kale was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack
The staff member, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack.
Israel has been moving deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave’s north on Tuesday in some of the fiercest attacks in months.
Israel’s international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled, and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.
In a statement on Monday after Kale’s death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated an “urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages,” saying the conflict in Gaza was continuing to take a heavy toll “not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers.”
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people and driven most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
His deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Tuesday the UN has established a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for the attack.
“It’s very early in the investigation, and details of the incident are still being verified with the Israeli Defense Force,” he said.
There are 71 international UN staff members in Gaza currently, he said.
In its only comment on the matter yet, India’s mission to the UN confirmed Kale’s identity on Tuesday, saying it was “deeply saddened” by his loss.
Israel, which launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to its tallies, has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah.
The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA estimates some 450,000 people have fled the city since May 6. More than a million civilians had sought refuge there.
Libya war crimes probe to advance next year: ICC prosecutor
- The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The International Criminal Court prosecutor probing war crimes committed in Libya since 2011 announced Monday his plans to complete the investigation phase by the end of 2025.
Presenting his regular report before the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan said that “strong progress” had been made in the last 18 months, thanks in particular to better cooperation from Libyan authorities.
“Our work is moving forward with increased speed and with a focus on trying to deliver on the legitimate expectations of the council and of the people of Libya,” Khan said.
He added that in the last six months, his team had completed 18 missions in three areas of Libya, collecting more than 800 pieces of evidence including video and audio material.
Khan said he saw announcing a timeline to complete the investigation phase as a “landmark moment” in the case.
“Of course, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require cooperation, candor, a ‘can do’ attitude from my office but also from the authorities in Libya,” he added.
“The aim would be to give effect to arrest warrants and to have initial proceedings start before the court in relation to at least one warrant by the end of next year,” Khan said.
The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.
So far, the investigation opened by the court in March 2011 has produced three cases related to crimes against humanity and war crimes, though some proceedings were abandoned after the death of suspects.
An arrest warrant remains in place for Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the assassinated Libyan dictator who was killed by rebel forces in October 2011.
Libya has since been plagued by fighting, with power divided between a UN-recognized Tripoli government and a rival administration in the country’s east.
Palestinians rally at historic villages in northern Israel
- The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population
- Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
SHEFA-AMR: Thousands of people took part Tuesday in an annual march through the ruins of villages that Palestinians were expelled from during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.
Wrapped in keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, men and women rallied through the abandoned villages of Al-Kassayer and Al-Husha — many holding signs with the names of dozens of other demolished villages their families were displaced from.
“Your Independence Day is our catastrophe,” reads the rallying slogan for the protest that took place as Israelis celebrated the 76th anniversary of the proclamation of the State of Israel.
The protest this year was taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, where fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has displaced the majority of the population, according to the United Nations.
Among those marching Tuesday was 88-year-old Abdul Rahman Al-Sabah.
He described how members of the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary group, forced his family out of Al-Kassayer, near the northern city of Haifa, when he was a child.
They “blew up our village, Al-Kassayer, and the village of Al-Husha so that we would not return to them, and they planted mines,” he said, his eyes glistening with tears.
The family was displaced to the nearby town of Shefa-Amr.
“But we continued (going back), my mother and I, and groups from the village, because it was harvest season, and we wanted to live and eat,” he said.
“We had nothing, and whoever was caught by the Israelis was imprisoned.”
Palestinians remember this as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the war that led to the creation of Israel.
The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population.
Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.
At Tuesday’s march, one man carried a small sign with “Lubya,” the name of what was once a Palestinian village near Tiberias.
Like many other Palestinian villages, Al-Husha and Al-Kassayer witnessed fierce battles in mid-April 1948, according to historians of the Haganah, among the Jewish armed groups that formed the core of what became the Israeli military.
Today, the kibbutz communities of Osha, Ramat Yohanan and Kfar Hamakabi can be found on parts of land that once housed the two villages.
“During the attack on our village Al-Husha, my father took my mother, and they rode a horse to the city of Shefa-Amr,” said Musa Al-Saghir, 75, whose village had been largely made up of people who immigrated from Algeria in the 1880s.
“When they returned to see the house, the Haganah forces had blown up the village and its houses,” said the activist from a group advocating for the right of return for displaced Arabs.
Naila Awad, 50, from the village of Reineh near Nazareth, explained that the activists were demanding both the return of displaced people to their demolished villages within Israel, as well as the return of the millions of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza and other countries.
“No matter how much you try to break us and arrest us, we will remain on our lands,” she insisted.
Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis
- Sameh Shoukry: “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side”
CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of denying responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after his Israeli counterpart said Egypt was not allowing aid into the war-torn territory.
Israeli troops on May 7 said they took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt as part of efforts to root out Hamas militants in the east of Rafah city.
The move defied international opposition and shut one of the main humanitarian entry points into famine-threatened Gaza. Since then, Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel aid access through the Rafah crossing.
Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said in a statement that “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side.”
In a tweet on social media platform X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had said, “Yesterday, I spoke with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Katz added that “the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”
Shoukry, whose country has tried to mediate a truce in the Israel-Hamas war, responded that “Israel is solely responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinians are currently facing in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and its military operations exposes “aid workers and truck drivers to imminent dangers,” referencing trucks awaiting entry to Gaza.
This, he said, “is the main reason for the inability to bring aid through the crossing.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he is “appalled” by Israel’s military escalation in Rafah, a spokesman said.
Guterres’ spokesman Farhan Haq said “these developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation,” while also criticizing Hamas for “firing rockets indiscriminately.”
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt remains closed and nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks “safe and logistically viable access,” a UN report said late on Monday.
Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq
- Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades
BAGHDAD: Daesh claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Monday targeting an army post in northern Iraq which security sources said had killed a commanding officer and four soldiers.
The attack took place between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a rural area that remains a hotbed of activity for militant cells years after Iraq declared final victory over the extremist group in 2017.
Security forces repelled the attack, the defense ministry said on Monday in a statement mourning the loss of a colonel and a number of others from the regiment. The security sources said five others had also been wounded.
Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades.
Iraq has seen relative security stability in recent years after the chaos of the 2003-US-led invasion and years of bloody sectarian conflict that followed.
