Middle Eastern Political Instability and Jordan’s Tourism

Middle Eastern Political Instability and Jordan’s Tourism

Abstract
Although Jordan’s tourism revenue contributes to the GDP, it fluctuates as political instability events hit the region. Therefore, this study examined nine major political impacts that took place during the period from 1990-2014 to address their impacts on tourism. The study utilized the annual number of tourists (international and Arab) and the annual percentage tourism’s share to GDP to statistically examine the relationship between the occurrence of these events and the number of tourists as well as tourism’s GDP share. The hypotheses of the study were tested using a 2-years moving average, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Student’s t-test. The results show that the number of international tourists and the percentage of GDP decreased during an event, while the number of Arab tourists increased pointing to resilience. The effect of political instability on tourism activities is temporary and confound to less than a year after an event.