The Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association (JITOA) announce wining a grant worth 100.000 Euros from the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) and signed the grant agreement Monday for over one year period under the Jordan Services Modernisation Programme (JSMP) managed by JEDCO. The grant is funded by the European Commission (EC-Financed and JE managed) for implementation of the action entitled “Developing the Capacity of
JITOA and its Members”.
The grant aims at implementing several projects and activities within the association’s strategies to build on JITOA capacity development and sustainability through enhancing the performance and profitability of its members, and enhancing JITOA communication and networking channels within the tourism industry.
Mohammad Samih, JITOA Chairman said “we anticipate quantifiable outcomes from the activities that will be implemented under this grant due to the various opportunities it will offer to our members and the tourism sector as a whole.”
JITOA has defined main objectives to be implemented under this grant in major areas of development that will boost the capacity of the association in support to its mission in raising the standard of practice of Jordan Inbound tourism industry and along with its strategic plans and ambitious vision.
The grant main objective is developing the capacity of JITOA and its members. The activities include conducting training and certification Programs by undertaking two effective programs, one for tourist police training program and another for developing a specialized adventure tour guiding certificate. In addition to supporting JITOA environmental initiative for adopting greener practices in the tourism sector. Also the grant will cover several activities to enhance JITOA communication tools and expanding its networking channels with its members, inbound tourists and international markets.
Among the planned activities, the new grant will open new opportunities for developing the export capacity for JITOA members to penetrate new markets by organizing group participation in exhibitions to Turkey, a potential destination that showed remarkable growth indicators and is not yet covered by the Jordan Tourism Board.
Samih highlighted “we work on promoting JITOA and its members internationally in our keen efforts to increase business opportunities and introducing new markets to further develop our member’s benefits and assure sustainable growth of the association.”
The grant also includes activities for developing new products and services by launching the second phase of the Voluntourism Project; a promising tourism niche market in Jordan that needs more development in different areas to be implemented in various potential destinations in the kingdom.
In continuation to the previous cooperation with JEDCO, JITOA builds on the strong partnership between the two organizations and will extend - under this grant - the Voluntourism Project in a second phase, for the great success and the remarkable interest it has showed in its first phase that was also funded by JSMP “quick response” grants early this year.
JITOA Executive Director, Nizar Al Adarbeh remarked upon signing the agreement “we are glad to cooperate with JEDCO/JSMP for the second time this year, and we are enthusiastic about the expected results of the planned activities under this grant” he added that JITOA aims to work on performing successful projects that will contribute to the development of its members and to the overall benefit of the tourism sector in Jordan.
JEDCO signed agreements with 37 companies operating in the service sector that were accepted out of 77 companies that applied to benefit from the JSMP grants, worth of 2.5 million, according to a JEDCO statement.