The war in Gaza has already had a terrible effect on Jordan’s economy. Since the war started, visitors have been cancelling trips to the country, out of worries about spillover violence, not just from the fighting in Gaza, but also the possibility of a major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border, and from the upsurge in violence in Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank. By dint of repetition, beginning immediately in 1950 with all the Arab and Muslim delegates using “the West Bank” speeches at the UN, the rest of the world quickly chose to forget the venerable toponyms that had been in constant use for 3000 years, not just by the Jews, but by the entire Western world. Take a look at any American, British, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Russian maps of the area up to 1950, and you will see “Judea” and “Samaria” clearly marked. And nowhere will you find “West Bank.” But here we are, in 2023, and practically everyone now uses, without giving it a thought, “West Bank” for “Judea and Samaria.”)
No one likes to visit what is a war zone, and the result has been a body blow to the tourism sector in Jordan. The country is losing about $250 million each month in revenue from tourism. More on this loss to Jordan’s economy can be found here: “Jordan Losing Over $250 Million Per Month Due to Israel-Hamas War,” Algemeiner, December 27, 2023:
The Israel-Hamas war is having devastating effects on the Jordanian economy, according to the kingdom’s Minister of Tourism Makram Mustafa Queisi.
Queisi said on Tuesday that the rate of tourist cancellation since the beginning of the war in October is around 60 percent, which translates to over 200,000 visitors, according to Al-Arab, a pan-Arab newspaper published in London.
Can you blame those tourists cancelling trips to Jordan? It’s not just the violence in Gaza, though that would by itself be enough to dissuade many tourists, but that exchange of fire across Israel’s northern border between the Jewish state and Hezbollah in Lebanon. And there is also the continuing threat of Houthi drones being fired at ships in the Red Sea, with the Americans successfully shooting down most of those drones, and just now creating a naval task force, consisting of ships from major maritime nations, under American leadership, able to answer the Houthi threat — taking the fight if necessary to Yemen itself — in order to make the Red Sea safe again for commercial shipping. All of these stories that dominate the news, about Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza, Hezbollah and Israel trading blows across the Lebanese-Israeli border, the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah attacking American bases in Syria and Iraq, quite understandably lead hundreds of thousands of tourists to cancel trips to Jordan. And there is another worry that puts would-be tourists off. Given that the majority of the population in Jordan is Palestinian, and angry at the Americans for continuing to stand by their Israeli ally, attacks on American tourists in Jordan are another source of justified concern.
If we want to reflect this number on income, we are talking approximately 180 to 200 million dinars [$253 to $281 million] per month,” which represents “a loss to the overall economy,” Queisi said.
“There will be significant losses to the economy, which means that every month there will be cancellations in hotel reservations and a decrease in the number of visitors by up to 60 or 70 percent,” he said.
The violence in the region will not soon die down. The Israelis have already said that they expect their campaign to destroy Hamas as a military threat will take “months,” and so the reluctance of visitors to come to Jordan will last at least as long.
In recent years, Jordan and Israel have considered cooperating on multiple joint economic and tourism initiatives including the Jordan Gateway Industrial Park, the construction of solar-power and desalination facilities in Israel, and joint tourism in the Gulf of Eilat-Aqaba….
All of those plans about “joint tourism initiatives” promoted by both Israel and Jordan, where package tours would include both countries’ offerings, and allow Jordan, whose main tourist attractions are the rose-red city of Petra, built by the Nabataeans, and Jerash, one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world, to benefit from the attractiveness of Israel as a world destination for both religious (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) and cultural tourists. Now, as long as the Gaza war lasts, all talk about joint Israeli-Jordanian tourism initiatives has stopped cold.
Wellington says
Jordan as collateral damage? Yes, but then wherever Islam has rein much collateral damage exists, most especially the closing of the mind, never mind such “minor matters” as the destruction of tourism.
There is no Islam at its best. Either the Islamic sphere of mankind since the 7th century AD has had achievements on its own in spite of Islam and not because of it (e.g., Avicenna and Averroes’ philosophical commentaries) or due to pure parasitic “achievements” (e.g., Byzantine Christians or Zoroastrian Persians functioning within Islamic-controlled areas).
If Islam were so terrific (it isn’t), then how can anyone explain minus some tired old excuse like “Western colonialism” that the “best of peoples” (Sura 3:110) have for centuries lived in one desolate excuse after another for a country? Yes, what has the Islamic world accomplished on its own over the past half millennium? For example, does anyone seriously think that Saudi Arabia on its own since 1932, and minus all Western technology, would have figured out how to extract oil from its land and refine it?
Islam on its own is awful. This assessment has never failed me. I see no prospect or reason why it ever would. Eff Islam.
JimJFox says
I don’t much care for analogies but one that springs to mind is exposing yourself to a mass of mosquitoes hoping that you will get infected with dengue fever and the immense pain and likely death that follows
ed says
Dead moslems are not collateral damage
tgusa says
Meanwhile, in semi related idiocy, Secretary Blinken is stating, “I am proud of our work to build stronger partnerships and strengthen global peace and security.”
Good lord. He dumber than resident bribem.
James Lincoln says
Yes, tgusa.
And Blinken orchestrated intel letter to discredit Hunter Biden laptop story.
No brains – and no morals.
tgusa says
And that wasn’t a selfie taking insurrection by the people it was sedition coming from the highest levels of government.
James Lincoln says
Yes, tgusa.
CL North says
My friends and I cancelled our March 2024 Holyland visit which included a stop in Jordan to see Petra and another stop in Egypt to visit the ancient pyramids. This article fails to mention both of these more progressive Muslim countries have stated they will not allow Palestinian refugees from Gaza to enter their countries. Egypt only allowed dual citizens and orphaned Gazan babies to cross over their southern border. Egypt is caring for the orphaned Palestinian babies. Muslim Brotherhood (precursor to Hamas) murdered Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981. Palestinian are followers of extreme Shia Islam. They cannot be trusted to successfully integrate in ANY Western or Sunni Muslim country. Idiot Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to the UN that Canada will take Palestinian refugees for 3 years! Like Denmark found impossible, I pity the Canadians in 2027 who attempt to deport hordes of economic dependent Palestinians back to Gaza! Canada will be stuck housing snd feeding them forever! Israel has experienced 75 years of Muslim dependency on them. Even after giving up land and building walls around Gaza & West Bank, the UN STILL expects Israel to fund & support the poor Palestinians neglected by their self-regulating terrorist leaders! A no-win situation!
Reziac says
Dear Jordan: If you don’t like it, maybe you should have discouraged your neighbors’ bad behavior.
[Tho one suspects that throne is balanced on a knife’s edge.]
Chief Mac says
This is what one gets from 100% hostility against Israel. They have earned all that they are getting.
Stop supporting genocide it is not a paying proposition
Dave says
In 1922 the League of Nations approved the British partition of Palestine, creating Transjordan as the Arab state and Israel (from the river to the sea) as the Jewish state. This class A mandate was incorporated into the UN. Jordan is the “palestinian” state. Why Israel does not promote this is beyond belief. All Gazans need to be relocated there whether the king of Jordan likes it or not. That is the two-state solution.
Dave says
In 1922 the League of Nations approved the British partition of Palestine, creating Transjordan as the Arab state and Israel (from the river to the sea) as the Jewish state. This class A mandate was incorporated into the UN. Jordan is the “palestinian” state. Why Israel does not promote this is beyond belief. All Gazans need to be relocated there whether the king of Jordan likes it or not. That is the two-state solution.
Keys says
Exactly, 100%! Well and succinctly stated!
Why do we rarely hear this?
I collected stamps as a grade school kid in the 60s and still have stamps from Transjordan! They are in a H. E. Harris world album. There is no country page for Jordan, but Transjordan has a partial page section.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Unnoticed by many, Jordan has morphed from a country that was friendly w/ Israel under King Hussein and Prince Hassan, to one that is barely on talking terms. Stabilizing that regime should be low on the priority list of our foreign policy wonks, although it won’t be
Transmaster says
Do you remember Jordan’s Black September (September 6-27th, 1970) when PLO’s head Yasser Arafat tired to take over Jordan, with the encouragement of Egypt and Syria? Arafat had amassed a large army based he the refugee camps in Jordan. King Hussein warned Arafat that he would not stand for what he was trying to do. The last straw was when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine flew 3 hijacked airlines and blew them up after releasing the passagers. King Hussein declared martial law and in a pitched battle threw Arafat and the PLO out of Jordan. So you can see why Jordan does not want to have anything thing to do with the Palestinians. Palestinian are the homeless bums of the middle east. let them in and they will start planting halal loafs on you front steps, and make demands like they owned the place.