Tourist restaurants see ‘significant’ post-pandemic rebound as of September — JRA

AMMAN — The first nine months of 2022 saw a "significant" increase in sales for tourist restaurants in the Kingdom compared with the previous two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, head of the Jordan Restaurants Association (JRA) Issam Fakhreddin said on Tuesday.

Fakhreddin told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that restaurants during the January-September period of 2022 restored some 80 per cent of their sales compared with toursit restaurant revenues in the same period of 2019.

He noted that since the start of 2022, about 82 tourist establishments in the Kingdom of various types and classifications have joined the JRA.

Fakhreddin also highlighted the sector's key challenges, most notably the shortage of trained and qualified Jordanian labourers, and the high operational costs, such as electricity prices and licensing fees.

He added that the pandemic forced qualified workers to change industries, migrate to Gulf countries or go back to their home countries.

The JRA president said that the association has held several meetings with the Labour Ministry to reach a quick action plan to compensate for workforce shortages, adding that the JRA is waiting for approvals from the ministry.

He also noted that JRA has prepared a medium- and long-term plan in cooperation with official institutions and stakeholders to help train workers before they enter the labour market, especially because many young people tend to work in neighbouring countries with higher growth rates in the tourism sector.