Amman – The USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) agreeing to work together on a number of key tourism projects. The USAID project will thus provide technical assistance to the ministry over the coming three months to support the implementation of MoTA’s activities in a number of areas, including local economic development, tourism investment, hotel classification, information archiving and tourism promotion.

There are seven main areas where the USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project will be providing support. The first is the Third Tourism Development Project (CHUTDP), which is funded by the World Bank; MoTA has embarked on tourism development in five key historically and culturally important cities, which are Jerash, Karak, Madaba, Salt and Ajloun, and is working to create the right conditions for local economic development. This includes a $1 million grant program and a community development component for supporting tourism enterprises in the five cities; the USAID project will tap into its experience in implementing a similar project in Madaba to support MoTA in this major initiative.

A second area that is being supported is the deployment of the new hotel classification system, which was launched by MoTA last year, as well as improving regulation of classified tourist restaurants. The USAID Tourism Project will work with MoTA to insure the right internal mechanisms are in place to implement this. The third area entails a tourism investment map, developed jointly by MoTA and the Jordan Tourism Board. The USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project will work to develop the map to highlight potential tourism projects that address investors’ needs, tourism market demands and area sensitivities for specific geographic areas.

Fourthly, the USAID project will work with MOTA to select a key initiative of its Executive Plan, which was produced with support from the project and launched last year, and begin its deployment in ministry operations. Next, the USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project will help MOTA populate its archives with studies and deliverables produced by the USAID Tourism Project as well as the USAID/AMIR 2.0 program. The final project is a summer tourism campaign, which the USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project has proposed a communication plan for and will help MoTA in implementation of a media plan.

The USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project will be working closely with MoTA until August 2008 to deliver each of these projects.