April 19- Tourism revenues rose by 39 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, according to figures released on Saturday. Revenues generated by the sector in the first three months of the year stood at JD503 million, up from to JD360 million in the same period of 2009, according to figures issued by the Ministry of Tourism.
Jordan also witnessed a 20.6 per cent growth in the number of visitors from January to March when over 1.53 million tourists visited the country, compared to 1.21 million in the first three months of last year. The number of overnight visitors totalled 883,450 in the period in question, up from 662,075 in the first quarter of 2009, while the number of the same-day tourists increased by 17.6 per cent to 651,532 compared to 553,929 in the previous year.
The first quarter figures also indicated that all of the Kingdom's tourist sites witnessed an increase in visitors. Mount Nebo witnessed the highest growth in visitors, with an 88 per cent rise. Some 99,798 tourists visited the site in the January-March period compared to 53,082 in the first quarter of 2009. Madaba came in second with 71.9 per cent growth, registering 80,098 visitors in the first quarter, compared to 46,593 in the same period of the previous year. Petra witnessed the highest number of overall visitors - 219,544 in the first quarter.