JAA developed Jordan’s first National Competitiveness Report (JNCR) for the Government of Jordanian as part of the Competitiveness Observatory, a unique program that allowed the Jordanian government to track the country’s progress on competitiveness issues. As part of the JNCR, JAA looked specifically at industries with particular promise for enhancing the country’s competitiveness, including tourism. Using market trend analysis, benchmarking and gap analysis (relative to both regional competitors and international examples of best practices), and the Porter Diamond, JAA analyzed the tourism sector to identify areas of unexploited potential. Among the key insights in the report included leveraging Petra’s newfound status as one of the new “Seven Wonders” by making it a “growth pole” around which package tours could be developed and serve as a magnet for attracting a higher-value tourist segment (particularly from Europe), and maximising the publicity it provides. The report examined the largely untapped potential of alternative tourist destinations in Jordan, such as Wadi Rum, Aqaba, the Dead Sea, and Jerash. It identified the importance of targeting the Asian market, which is growing rapidly and is anticipated to account for a greater proportion of world tourism expenditures, and the potential of the medical tourism industry. The strategy report provided a strategic roadmap that identified obstacles to growth for the industry, including the skills gap, low visitor spending per day relative to other similar countries, a lack of partnerships (both public-public as well as public-private), a lack of market research and market intelligence, inadequate international marketing efforts, and an over-reliance on its “inherited” factors at the expense of the “created” factors that can enhance the visitor experience (such as customer service and enhanced infrastructure).

Duration: 2006-2007