As Marco Biazzetti, Italian Market Manager of Jordan Tourism Board explained at the close of the last edition of BIT, "For Jordan, Italy is the main market and being at BIT is crucial for us, especially for the new strategy that seeks to expand beyond classic itineraries to offer adventure, wellness and food and wine trips. We received so many visits not only from travelers and buyers, including non-Italian ones, but also from journalists from important media outlets."

Indeed, Jordan is the country that invests the most in BIT, occupying the most space in the fair in the "World" sector, where it is consistently present both with its tourism agency and with dedicated sellers.

The results for the numbers of Italian tourists heading to Petra do not lie. 12,057 Italian travelers visited Jordan in May, with a total of 67,958 arrivals in the first five months of 2023. Since last year, the Italian market has been the leading European market for arrivals in the Hashemite Kingdom and is now becoming more popular, overtaking countries such as Germany and France which, with around 35,000 arrivals each, are in second and third place for arrivals in Europe respectively.

The reasons for such success among tourists from the Peninsula can be traced back to a diversified offer, which ranges from the traditional offer of cultural and religious tourism, to the wellness offer in the Dead Sea, alongside high-level offers dedicated to active tourism, with the Jordan Trail and the Jordan Bike Trail, two routes of over 600 km to be covered on foot and by bicycle.

Another factor contributing to the increase in Italian arrivals is definitely the various air connections of Royal Jordanian and three low-cost airlines from the Peninsula's five main airports (Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Bologna, Venice Marco Polo and Venice Treviso).

Indeed, the intense marketing strategy carried out by the Jordan Tourism Board cannot be overlooked, which has focused on communication campaigns and co-marketing initiatives with various Italian tour operators, which include both B2C and B2B activities, as well as participation in BIT.