JRA issues demands to ‘fully reopen’ tourism restaurants

AMMAN — The Jordan Restaurants Association (JRA) on Sunday evening sent a letter addressed to Tourism Minister Majd Shweikeh regarding measures to fully reopen tourism restaurants and voicing demands to remedy the losses suffered during the past three months.

In the letter, the JRA described the decision to reopen restaurants partially, without the full use of all facilities, as “unfair”, noting that the reopening was either “not beneficial” for the restaurants that followed the decision or “has led many to remain closed without attempting to open at all”.

“The conditions have caused unfair competition between facilities… in a way that damages the sector,” the letter said, adding: “We certainly are not referring to the health and public safety conditions, to which we have been giving our utmost attention during and prior to the coronavirus crisis.”

The letter lists demands that “must be met as soon as possible” in order to ensure that the whole sector benefits and that the losses incurred over the past three months are remedied.

The first demand is to allow all tourism cafes and restaurants to serve shisha in roofed terraces under conditions agreed upon with the concerned authorities to ensure public health and safety.

The second demand is to allow tourism cafes and restaurants that rely on entertainment to host singers or DJs, also under agreed-upon conditions. The JRA also demanded that tourism restaurants be allowed to extend their closing hours to 2am so that “all facilities benefit from the summer season” as “most begin their work after 9pm”.

The JRA demanded that inspection committees’ work during the current period be limited only to checking that health and public safety conditions are met as listed in the Tourism Ministry’s guidebook in regards to the coronavirus.

The association further demanded that restaurants be allowed to transfer professional licences from one location to another in order to prevent them from losing any features listed in the licences as well as to prevent landlords from abusing tenants.

The letter concluded with a request for a meeting with the Tourism minister this week to discuss the association’s “urgent demands”.

The JRA represents over 950 classified members, including restaurants, entertainment cities, coffee shops, fast food establishments, discos, bars and cabarets. It is a member of the Jordan Federation of Tourism Associations and the Jordan Tourism Board, according to its website.