Words by Yousef Nassar, photos by Hussam Da’ana
Leaving a management job with Procter and Gamble in 2009 to move to Jordan to join a tourism company seemed a curious choice to say the least. “Why would you do that?” was a question I was usually confronted with whenever I mentioned my intentions to my friends and colleagues. It didn’t seem like the logical choice to make but that’s exactly what I did on January 14, 2009. Getting on board the Royal Jordanian flight from Frankfurt to Amman, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia. Everything seemed familiar! From the flight attendants, the music playing onboard the aircraft, the choice of meals and even the children running up and down the aisles; it was one big homecoming.
Arriving at Queen Alia Airport, I followed the throng of people who seemed to know where they were going. Left, right, up escalators, straight… Where are we going?! I was relieved to find an airport representative (who would later become my colleague) with my name on a sign just before the immigration desk who greeted me with a smile, a warm handshake, a bottle of water and a mint. “Ahlan wa sahlan Mr. Yousef, welcome to Amman”. I was home. He assisted me with my visa formalities, my luggage, answered my questions and introduced me to his colleague who would be taking me to my hotel where I would be staying before finding an apartment. Refusing a tip, he told me “you are our guest in Jordan, I cannot accept”. I was curious, how many people had he personally met and assisted that day? “You are my 26th customer today, but I have been doing this for over 14 years”. “Wow! How do you manage to stay so positive and cheerful?” I asked (obviously I had been living in sterile/efficient Europe for far too long and wasn’t used to this sort of welcoming). He laughed and said “Mr Yousef, we are the first impression of Jordan. I represent Jordan and its people and I am the first Jordanian a tourist meets. Its more than a job, it’s my duty to make sure that you and others feel at home right away”. I was flabbergasted; I had never seen anyone perform their role with such a sense of duty and chivalry.
This man, along with 199 others like him, now stands to lose his job. The new airport authorities last week decided to cancel over 200 airport passes for employees from the different tourism companies here in Jordan. Overnight, they put the livelihoods of 200 individuals and their families at risk. Why you ask? Well, the story goes a little like this.
The new airport authorities have decided to cancel these permits for tour operators who provide this service for free to their clients, and want to issue a tender for companies to bid to be able to provide this service. So far so good? Here’s the catch, in their request for proposal, the bidding company has to have at least three years of experience in other airports around the world, and there is not a single Jordanian company that could meet the conditions to qualify unless they go into a joint venture with a foreign company (and there are only a few of those around the world). Whilst we are all for encouraging foreign investments, should this come at the cost of the livelihoods of 200 Jordanians and their families?
Commercially it is a sweet deal for AIG as well. The successful bidder has to pay a percentage of their gross revenues annually to the company. The tour companies welcome between 400,000 and 700,000 tourists a year. If 60% of these came through Amman Airport and the new company charged only JOD 20 per person, well… you do the math.
You might be asking yourself “isn’t this the same procedure that other airports around the World and the Middle East follow?” Yes it is. But no airport around the world has as many complex, diverse and contradictory regulations governing the issuance of visas and conditions for entry to the country as we have in Amman (contact me for examples). The tourism sector is one of the biggest private sector employers in the Kingdom and contributes between 10-12% of annual GDP. Yet instead of grooming and developing this sector it has been repeatedly pillaged by short sighted and short term policies and ministerial decisions. Whether it’s increasing the hotel tax (a whopping 18% already) or the entrance fees to popular sites (it now costs more to visit Petra than it does to visit the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Collisseum and Angkor Wat combined), they continue to scratch away at Jordan’s golden egg that it now appears to have lost some if its luster and resembles a tin can.
Unfortunately this time they are doing so without the regard for 200 Jordanian families.
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Earlier today, Sunday March 24, airport representatives who stand to lose their jobs protested in front of the Prime Minister’s office on 4th circle in Amman. Below are some photos.
