Jordan woos Gulf tourists
Jordan’s top attractions include the ruins of the ancient city of Petra and the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, which was named Arab Tourism Capital of 2011 by the Arab Tourism Ministers Council. The designation has helped it draw some of the tourism away from the volatile, shark-invested resorts in the Egyptian Sinai coast. It has fewer strictures on liquor and the intermingling of the sexes than many of the conservative Gulf kingdoms. ” Gary Bregman, a tourist from a Western country who had recently visited Aqaba, told The Media Line. “The cafes were packed. They had real liquor stores, nicer than any I’d seen in the rest of the world, and massage parlors. It was clear you could do things in Aqaba you couldn’t do in other cities in Jordan.