Sectoral Dialogue Session: The State of the Tourism Sector in Aqaba in Light of Regional Changes

On Saturday, Aqaba Governorate hosted a specialized dialogue session titled: “The State of the Tourism Sector in Aqaba Amid Regional Developments”, with the participation of a diverse group of stakeholders and experts in the tourism sector.

The session aimed to assess the current state of tourism in the city in light of ongoing regional changes. It featured in-depth discussions addressing key challenges affecting the sector, while also exploring opportunities for recovery and mechanisms to enhance sustainability in the coming phase.

During the session, participants highlighted several critical challenges facing the sector, most notably the complexity of licensing and permitting procedures, the high operational energy costs for tourism establishments, and the negative impacts of regional developments. These factors have affected tourist demand, visitor flows, and contributed to instability in the sector’s overall performance.

Participants also presented a set of practical recommendations and insights aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of Aqaba’s tourism sector and enhancing its ability to adapt to these challenges, ultimately contributing to economic recovery and local development.

This session comes as part of Al-Hayat Center – RASED’s ongoing efforts to support structured national dialogue, shed light on local community priorities, and link them to parliamentary engagement and public policy-making processes.

The session resulted in a set of identified challenges and recommendations, which will be further analyzed and developed into a policy paper to be directed to decision-makers at both the executive and legislative levels, supporting evidence-based decision-making.

This session was implemented under the project “Enhancing Parliamentary Accountability and Inclusive Dialogue in Jordan”, implemented by Al-Hayat Center – RASED, with support from the Kingdom of Norway.