Jordanian experts on Sunday decided to form a committee to look into ways to revive Petra's hospitality industry, which has slumped in the wake of the terror attacks on the US last month, the Jordan Times reported.
Representatives from the Petra Regional Planning Council and tourism experts met in the area on Sunday to discuss how such a committee might produce promotional packages and programs to attract local and foreign tourists to fill the area's empty hotels, said the Amman-based paper.
Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) managing director Marwan Khoury addressed 50 tourism experts, saying that the board would back the committee's efforts.
According to the tourism ministry, hotel reservations in Petra fell by 47 percent following the September 11 events compared to the same period last year.
There are 25 classified hotels boasting a total of nearly 1,750 rooms in Petra, Jordan's most famous tourist attraction.
Petra is a 2,000-year-old city carved from pink and salmon-colored sandstone, and served as the capital of the Nabataean Arabs.
It flourished for over 400 years around the time of Rome and Christ, until it was occupied by the Roman legions of Emperor Trajan in 106 AD. The Petra basin boasts over 800 individual monuments that were mostly carved from the kaleidoscopic sandstone by the technical and artistic genius of the Nabataeans – Albawaba.com
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