Pandemic stirs tourist guide concerns as uncertainty clouds sector

AMMAN – The Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) has highlighted the concerns of tourist guides due to the uncertainty facing the tourism sector caused by the coronavirus crisis.

The sector employs 1,229 guides, 1,160 men and 69 women, according to Tourism Ministry figures cited in a JLW statement.

“The Tourism Ministry set a condition for tourist guides to issue a licence that costs JD90,” Emad Abu Rayyan told the JLW, affiliated with the Phenix Centre for Economic Studies, noting that they have not seen any “tangible help” from the ministry yet.

“I have four children, two of whom are university students, and now I cannot provide for them,” Abu Rayyan told the JLW, expressing his exasperation at receiving no support after having worked for 14 years in the sector, according to the statement.

For his part, tourist guide Khaled Omar said: “Tourist guides are an important asset to the sector and the first to be impacted by the crisis. We have a season that starts in March and continues until September, which means we have lost the season we have been waiting for to make a living and pay our debts and dues.”

“We are in very bad financial and mental condition; we were once impacted by the Syrian crisis in 2011 but then the sector was revitalised; however, this crisis is like no other because it is global, not just regional, and I do not think domestic tourism is going to be enough to make up for our losses,” Omar told the JLW, according to the statement.

Jordan Tourism Guides Association (JTGA) President Raed Abdelhaq told the JLW: “The impact is huge and cannot be erased easily, we are trying to provide all tools of living for our companions and we have proposed many suggestions to the authorities.”

“The crisis was not expected, and many tourist organisations were not prepared, and they have financial dues, and so tourist guides are not being paid and given their rights from tourist agents,” Abdelhaq said, adding that the agents claim they do not have the money to pay.

As Jordan is one of the few countries that has “full control over COVID-19”, the government has exerted numerous efforts to sustain tourism and its future in the Kingdom, Tourism Minister Majd Shweikeh said on May 2.

Shweikeh, at the time, said the efforts began with the immediate stage to ensure the resilience of the sector, resolving critical issues, focusing on the sustainability of the sector and the labour force, with the support of the Central Bank of Jordan, the Social Security Corporation and the social solidarity fund.