May 3 – Tourist traffic to Petra went up in the first quarter of 2010, said official figures released on Saturday. According to the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA), 321,000 tourists visited the ancient Nabataean city in the January-April period as compared to the same period last year, thus going up by 44 per cent.
Tourist traffic was highest in April when 111,834 tourists visited Petra, a 37 per cent increase. As a result, tourism revenues at the site went up by 46 per cent, around JD6.3 million, up from JD4.3 million during the same period last year. Meanwhile, 103,000 visitors in April were non-Jordanians as compared to 75,000 in April 2009. This was followed by European visitors (35.5 per cent), South Asians (29.4 per cent), Asia-Pacific nationals (27 per cent), Arabs (20.8 per cent) and visitors from the Americas (8.7 per cent).
