Jordan to ramp-up tourism marketing efforts as the nation re-opens
This blog was written by Trove Associate Andrea Viera.
Jordan was recognized as a prime tourist destination by winning an award as the Middle East's Most Romantic Destination in 2020. However, tourism is one of the sectors impacted the most financially by COVID-19 and, as the traveling season approaches, key players within the industry are focusing efforts on rebuilding and making up for failed target margins. When designing future projects and innovations, Jordan should work towards creating a tangible, long-lasting marketing campaign that is flexible.
Prior to COVID-19, Jordan's tourism was heavily impacted by the Arab Spring in 2011. In 2010, 8.2 million visitors traveled to Jordan. This is compared to 4.92 million visitors in 2018, a full six years into the recovery efforts after the end of the Arab Spring. The recovery efforts included raising the country’s international profile and targeting Gulf countries, including Turkey and the Far East. Additionally, Jordan launched online and offline campaigns targeting French, British, and German markets with European tour operator partners. More unconventional efforts consisted of utilizing "The Martian" movie, set in Jordan, as promotion. Another tool used was the "Jordan Pass", which gave tourists access to all major archaeological sites and museums while waiving entry visa fees for pass holders.
Like many nations forced to temporarily close borders to travel, the number of tourists that arrived in Jordan was significantly impacted due to the pandemic. However, Jordan tourism, despite beginning to open up again following COVID-19, has not been able to reach tourist levels comparable to 2010 (Pre Arab Spring). There has been a lot of press coverage on Jordan tourism in recent months to highlight the COVID-19 recovery process, as tourists are no longer required to quarantine.
According to the Jordan Strategy Forum, a key element to Jordan’s road map for recovery from the pandemic is smart marketing and market intelligence driven by data analytics, which will drive impactful marketing strategies with minimal risk to scarce finances. As we look forward to a fast COVID-19 recovery and increase in Jordan’s tourism once again, there are a few factors that the Jordanian tourism industry, and specifically Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), should look into to boost tourism in the nation. One of these factors is data analysis. There is so much data out there online on travelers' sentiment towards Jordan. This has been building and building, especially in the last 12 months. This data can inform and focus marketing efforts. Firstly, the tourism industry can conduct sentiment analysis from relevant tweets about Jordanian tourism. This can be done by labeling the Twitter data as positive, neutral, or negative sentiment and collecting all geography, demographic, timing, and other relevant information on the Tweets. This effort is to gather thousands of Tweets more efficiently than manual efforts. Questions that should then be asked to gain more insight about this sentiment include:
What is the sentiment around travel to Jordan? What percentage is positive? Negative? Neutral?
For the positive tweets – what attractions or topics are associated with them?
For the negative tweets -what attractions or topics are associated with them?
For the neutral tweets – what attractions or topics are associated with?
What locations or demographics are the sentiments coming from?
How has sentiment changed in the last 12 months?
Another factor is Jordan’s branding. Previous Jordanian tourism marketing projects have worked towards digital campaigns and utilizing other platforms. Future projects should emphasize the importance of centralized brand messaging across multiple platforms. Branding strategies should be tailored to the 2021 visitors and what they specifically want to hear.
The final factor should be engaging new markets. COVID-19 restrictions have changed who the 2021 visitor is and in what way they travel. Future projects will use sentiment analysis to take data and segment the market for the ideal and prominent visitor instead of estimations. In light of COVID-19 travel restrictions and the change in case numbers on a country basis, the 2021 visitor has changed in their composition and the way they travel. Jordan has a newfound ability to leverage its position as a safe and open tourist destination. In addition to Jordan’s positioning in new niche markets related to adventure and ecotourism, the destination can execute a campaign that gets better traction online while resonating with new tourist segments. Jordanian tourism companies can also target their advertising towards nations and locales with high vaccination rates, as vaccinated people are both more likely to be looking to travel and travelers to Jordan must be vaccinated.
Tourism agencies and companies must focus both on advertising abroad to nations that have higher vaccination rates, bringing back local Jordanians to those attractions, and engaging with Gulf area tourists. One measure the government has taken to make locals active in tourism is by launching a program worth 9 million U.S. dollars to boost domestic tourism and lower the costs associated with visiting the typical tourist attractions. Additionally, the JTB on Sunday launched the “Tanaffas’’ (breathe) campaign, targeting tourists from the surrounding Gulf countries and promoting Jordan as “the best and safest” summer destination for tourists. By focusing on such areas, Jordan can maximize their advertising impact and start recovering from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
We hope to visit Jordan soon and expect a fast recovery from the hardships of the pandemic. Learn more about our Online Marketing and Social Media work here and how we help tourism boards like the JTB expand their footprint.