Sights

petra the golden past

ziad

"To have it as one of the new seven wounders of the world is excellent, but to have it come as number two is marvellous."

This is what founder of the Petra Travel and Tourism Company Nasser Kawar said when he heard the news that the city of Petra had won an exeeding number of the 100 million votes to select the new seven wounders of the world.

Many are yet to fathom what the vote would mean. But the initial reaction from inbound tour operators in Amman is that "it is great news for Jordan, especially, the tourism sector which is already witnessing a boom, says the Executive Director of the Jordan Inbound Tourism Association ((JITOA) Ahmad El Bashiti.

Much internanational tourism--from the Far East to the Far West, from North to South--are likely to be flocking to Petra just to see why it was chosen as one of the seven wounders of the world.

"Many are totally mesmirized by the outcome of the vote, and many in Jordan never though that Petra would make especially in the face of such constructions as the Eiffal Tower in Paris, the Acropolis in Greece and the Kremlin in Moscow," said one tourism observor.

However, many say the vote shows that people still respect traditions, cultures and civilizations rooted in antiquity, for this is what Petra is, and the same goes for the Great China Wall which came as number 1 (again to the great surprise of many.

Jordanians, especially the Ministry of Tourism, the Jordan Tourism Board, inbound tour operators and others must now capitalize on the new win, they must plan well ahead for the expected influx of international tourists, they need to put the programs as well as packages, to make sure that with new quests for commercialism there is a need for control, to protect sites, preservertion and heritage.

Petra is a true wonderment for everyone to see.