jordan pulse -
The Parliamentary Tourism and Public Antiquities Committee approved, during a meeting held today, Sunday, a draft law amending the Tourism Law for the year 2024.
Its head, Representative Engineer Magdi Al-Yaqoub, said, in the presence of the Minister of Tourism and Public Antiquities, Makram Al-Qaisi, and the State for Legal Affairs, Nancy Namrouqa, that the main purpose of approving this law was The law is to come up with legislation that supports and encourages investment in the tourism sector.
He stressed the importance of having controls governing the licensing process for tourism establishments, and not leaving it to the mood of the employee concerned, stressing the need to
work to facilitate procedures for investors in the tourism sector.
Al-Yacoub explained that there must be a clear path for the investor in the process of obtaining approvals and licensing, work on training municipal staff, and transferring the expertise of Ministry of Tourism employees to them so that they are able to deal with investors.
In turn, the representatives: Muhammad Al-Saudi, Omar Al-Nabr, Najeh Al-Adwan, Abdullah Abu Zaid, Firas Al-Ajarma, Fawaz Al-Zoubi, Asma Al-Rawahna, Mahmoud Al-Farajat, Farid Haddad, Salem Al-Omari, Hayel Ayyash, Ghazi Thneibat, Ramzi Al-Ajarma, Ali Al-Tarawneh, stressed the importance of advancing the sector. Tourism is a major driver of the national economy and contributes to employing a large workforce.
They pointed out that the circumstances and crises have greatly affected this sector, which requires the establishment of a fund to confront risks.
For his part, Al-Qaisi stated that the authority related to approvals of licenses for tourist establishments is the Ministry of Tourism, as it is the umbrella organization for the tourism sector, stressing that the regulations and instructions will take into account the issue of periods for completing the license application.
He added that the "tourism rate" came to facilitate procedures for investors by replacing the licensing system from the Ministry of Tourism to the municipalities to ensure that powers do not overlap between the relevant authorities.
Al-Qaisi pointed out that the process of transferring the powers of licensing tourist facilities to municipalities is not a new procedure, explaining that expertise will be transferred and municipal staff will be trained on procedures related to the tourism sector.
Namrouqa, for her part, said that the purpose of the new amendments to the “tourism rate” is to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism sector and improve the business environment to increase the flow of investments in it.
She added that the most prominent amendments are those concerned with easing the procedures for licensing requirements and relying only on the approval issued by the Ministry to practice tourism professions and activities.
Namrouqa explained that the developments taking place today require everyone to introduce new terms into the law to suit these developments in order to be able to maintain the sustainability and continuity of the tourism sector.