COVID-19 impact on tourism sector in Jordan

Tourism is one of the main sectors influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic since tourism was linked to the outbreak of the virus through the travel of tourists from the affected countries.

Furthermore, tourism and related sectors were among the sectors that nearly closed completely through the full and partial lockdown, which represented the most prominent government procedures to limit the spread of the virus. Therefore, this study is the first of its kind that attempted to explore the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector and assess the government’s role in supporting the sector and preventing its collapse.

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to identify the main issues that must be covered in order to explore the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector, and then develop a questionnaire that was answered by 59 tourism organizations. Based on the data analyses and the hypotheses testing the study concluded that despite the great procedures and efforts undertaken by the Jordanian government to support the tourism sector, they did not meet the magnitude of the harm and did not fulfill the sector hopes in terms of injecting liquidity, supporting small and medium enterprises, and empowering their workers to continue to work and meet the new tourism requirements for the post-Covid-19 era.

The study suggested an agenda to improve the government’s support of the tourism sector and bring it to safety.