11/08/2019 16:54

Explosions in Jordan: no cancellations yet

[IMG=18291-3790] In a series of explosions that occurred on the 9th of November in hotels of Amman, the capital of Jordan, fortunately no Russian tourists were hurt. As Elena Pechalova, PR-director of the Jordan representative office of tourism, told a BANKO correspondent: ‘In the hotels: Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn which were damaged there were no Russian citizens at the time’. Operators of services use the destination of Amman as a convenient ‘transit’ point due to its’ airport, where tour programs start and finish. However, holiday-makers typically do not stay there for long, preferring to stay on the Red or Dead seas. Experts interviewed by BANKO noted that one of the attacked hotels – Days Inn – is popular with Russians and it is booked by Russian tourists in the near future. ‘It is still unclear if our tourists will stay there’, says Ankhar Kochneva, coordinator of ‘Jordan club’, - ‘If the hotel is not going to be sorted in the near future, they will be rerouted to other hotels’. No one yet wished to leave Jordan. ‘What is more, none of our clients, flying to the country in near future, changed their plans’, added Andrei Philyanov, ‘Intertourbusiness’ director. Nevertheless, experts foresee a temporary drop of interest in the destination. Svetlana Kovaleva, manager of Jordan in ‘Spectr-Ideal tour’ offered: ‘There might be a quiet spell but by the New Year the demand will return, and by March with high season we will start selling tours in full volume.’ Among possible consequences experts mentioned the increase of immigration control in airports. The situation with closing land borders, announced by the authorities after the introduction of a state of national emergency in the country, is not yet clear. Georgiy Leontiev, director of ‘Collage service’ said: ‘Combined tours with land transfer between Syria and Jordan are very popular. In the case of the closing of the borders, their organization will be very problematic’. Yet on Thursday Jordan partners of several Russian companies said that the borders are still open for transfers of holiday-makers.