At the door of the "Treasury", the most famous landmark of the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan, Nayef Hilalat, the site guard, stands alone and sad, and says, "For the first time in my life, I see the place as empty." Usually there are thousands of tourists. ”
Petra, famous for its rock-carved architecture located 225 km south of Amman, is the favorite destination for foreign tourists in Jordan. It was chosen in 2007 as one of the new wonders of the world, but today it is more like a ghost town.
The pink city (relative to the colors of its rocks) was built in 312 BC as the capital of the ancient Arab Nabatean kingdom.
Hilalat (42 years), a father of five children and working on the site for ten years, says: «At this time every year, the place is filled with thousands of tourists, we sometimes had to organize their ranks and the process of introducing them so that there would not be a stampede, but now there are only the voices of birds ».
At the end of the “Siq” pass, which is a narrow path that sneaks the sun’s rays between its two highways and was taken by tourists heading to Petra on foot or on the backs of animals or carriages drawn by animals. "the safe".
In enclosed and empty recesses, wooden tables are raised over dust, while workers can be sterilized from afar. Outside the closed souvenir shops, the cotton shirts bearing pictures of the site are still suspended, and their colors faded due to the burning sun.
The last tourists left the kingdom on March 16, the day before the Jordanian authorities suspended international flights and closed airports until further notice. Since that time, Petra has been deserted, and about 200 tourist guides and 1,500 migrant owners of horses, donkeys and camels from Wadi Musa have become unemployed.
"What happened to us and the residents of this area is like a catastrophe," says tour guide Naeem Al-Nawafleh, 55, a father of six. In the past, the number of tourists increased and decreased according to the conditions of the region, but now there are no final tourists. "This has not happened before."
Al-Nawafleh, who has been working on the site for nearly 30 years and was paid about 50 dinars per day (about $ 70) for his work, adds: “We are tired of sitting at home, and if the situation continues like this, it is a big problem. We are now spending our savings. ”
It is feared that the return of tourists will be delayed by a year or two and that "future travel procedures will be unfortunate for tourists, especially since most of them are elderly and retired."
"About 80% of the population of the Petra region, who number about 38,000, depend directly or indirectly on tourism as a source of income for them," said Sulaiman Al-Farajat, the Petra Development and Tourist Authority Commissioner.
One of them is Nael Nawas, 41, who is a father of eight and owns a donkey that he used to transport tourists, especially the elderly. He earns between 30 and 40 dinars (40 to 55 dollars) per day and now works temporarily in the sale of livestock.
It seems that the 45 Petra hotels and their 3000 rooms will face difficult days with the onset of the tourist season.
Hopes for the return of tourists
In the lobby of the three-star hotel "La Maison", which is built of white stone and surrounded by small trees, the receptionist sat alone, placing a hand on his cheek and his eye at the entrance. "The tragedy is that this epidemic came at the height of our tourist season, which begins in February," said hotel owner Tariq Touisi.
"Reservations were over 90%, and in less than a week all of them were canceled," he says. "The occupancy rate for rooms in my hotel is zero now."
Al-Tuwaisi, who is also president of the Petra Hotels Association, hopes that "tourists will return to countries not affected by the epidemic, like Jordan", which has recorded 863 cases so far and nine deaths from the emerging coronavirus.
Nayef Hilalat: "We sometimes had to organize the ranks of tourists and enter them so that there would be no stampede, and now there is only the voices of birds."
80%
Residents of the Petra region depend on tourism as a source of income.
200
A tourist guide, and 1,500 migrants from horses, donkeys and camels are unemployed.