Royal Wings will launch charter flights from three East European countries to Jordan as of October, in a bid to attract more tourists to the Kingdom, Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) Director Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat said on Tuesday.

Arabiyat noted that Royal Wings will operate weekly charter flights from Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to Amman.

According to figures he presented, more than 2.5 million tourists from these three countries visit Turkey, Egypt and Israel annually.

“We are visiting these three countries next week to organise a road show and promote the Kingdom’s tourism products there,” Arabiyat told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Meanwhile, the JTB is also intensifying its promotion campaigns in some Asian countries.

As part of these campaigns, four road shows were organised in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand this month, after meetings were held with travel agents and industry representatives in these countries, according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

The JTB campaigns in Asia and Europe constitute an attempt to make up for the drop in the number of tourists coming to the Kingdom, where the sector has been affected by regional turmoil.

According to Ministry of Tourism figures, the first three months of the year witnessed a 10 per cent drop in the total number of visitors who came to Jordan, while the number of Arab tourists increased by 3 per cent.

However, the drop in tourist numbers did not affect the sector’s revenues, which went up by 1.7 per cent during the first quarter of 2013, according to Central Bank of Jordan figures.