Despite recent regional unrest, Jordan’s F&B industry is marching on valiantly, thanks to its dedicated base of culinary experts. Caterer finds out what’s spurring them on
It was all going so well for Jordan in 2010. Tourism was up 16.4% year-on-year [includes overnight-stay and same-day visitors] and the restaurant sub-sector was the largest in the Tourism and Travel Related Services (TTRS). Numbers of employees in the restaurant sub-sector had been growing at anywhere between 500 and 3000 a year since 2005, to work in the ever-growing number of tourist-focused restaurants.
Essam Fakhriddin, chairman of the board of the Jordan Restaurant Association, says: “The culinary and F&B industries in Jordan (particularly Amman) have been growing very strongly since the early 90s due to many factors including a growth in population, a change in consumer behaviour and the need for new food outlets”.
| Advertisement |
But when the Arab Spring gained momentum in Jordan’s neighbouring countries at the beginning of 2011, the picture changed. Tourism figures fell in 2011, by 20.8% [Jan-Aug compared with the same period in 2010]. Didier Gusching, executive chef at the Radisson Blu Tala Bay Resort Aqaba, in the south of Jordan, was one of the people on the front line who noticed the effect.
“Before the uprisings in the Middle East, we used to have lots of visitors from all over Europe, from the UK and Italy especially, but now chartered flights from there have been cancelled and we don’t see so many Europeans. We’re hoping the flights will start up again in a month or two – maybe for the winter – but until then we’ve adjusted menus and services to meet the needs of our new customers.”
“Thankfully there is a big local community here, and a good local market.” Gusching goes on to explain. “We always keep an eye on what’s going on internationally, but we have to keep our eyes fixed on the local market too – it’s our bread and butter really.”
Amman restaurant owner Madian Al Jazerah, who runs Books@Cafe with his brother, Mazhar, is confident about the future too.
Despite admitting that they did lose business this year due to tour cancellations, he says sales are up around 20%. Al Jazerah thinks it’s because they’ve pitched their outlet just right in the market: “People who frequent more expensive establishments see us as a good deal for the quality. Those on the lower end come to Books@Cafe too for its fair price range,” he says.
Article continues on next page...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
