Amman, Nov. 18 (Petra) – Preliminary figures released by the Central Bank of Jordan indicate that tourism revenue rose by 3.4 percent in October to USD 600.8 million, compared with a 5.5 percent decline to USD 581.2 million in the same month last year.

As a result, tourism income increased by 6.5 percent during the first ten months of the year, reaching USD 6.5536 billion, compared with a 4.4 percent drop to USD 6.1529 billion in the corresponding period of last year. The rise is attributed to a 14.1 percent increase in the number of tourists.

The data show higher tourism revenue during the first ten months of the year from Asian nationalities by 34.6 percent, European by 31.8 percent, American by 17.1 percent, Arab by 3.5 percent, and other nationalities by 34 percent, while revenue from expatriate Jordanians declined by 1.2 percent.

The figures also show an increase in outbound tourism spending by 5.0 percent during the same ten-month period, reaching USD 1.7412 billion. In October alone, outbound spending rose by 12.0 percent to USD 151.9 million.

//Petra// AO