Aqaba in Jordan: a booming seaside attraction

The northeastern arm of the Red Sea, the gulf of Aqaba, was awakened by ASEZA (Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority), an autonomous institution responsible for developing the south of the country. Following the success of the programme, Aqaba is today part of new European regional projects that go beyond good governance.

Angélique Férat - Amman, Eurojar

Being Jordan’s only seaport, Aqaba, in the far south of the country, gains a strategic importance. With 22 km of coastal façade, Aqaba borders Egypt and Israel. In 2001, King Abdullah decided to convert Aqaba into a Special Economic Authority or a free trade zone to attract investments. ASEZA took in charge the management and development of the region. It acts as the local authority of the area. Its mission is to transform Aqaba into a commercial hub, generating employment with the development of tourism and port industry.

In 2003, the European Union decided to join the efforts for developing Aqaba. An audit was performed to define the priorities that needed to be tackled. Aqaba was just a small coastal marginalized town. A cooperation programme signed for the years 2003 to 2008, with a 10 million Euros total budget, aimed at supporting the institutional development of the region’s touristic aspect, environment & food management and finally post audit follow up for different enterprises in the region.



A tourism authority was created and the first information bureau for tourism was established in Aqaba. A road map for Aqaba town was printed in Arabic and English. The need for marketing emerged at a later stage. Who to attract and how? So the EU funded project produced the first marketing strategy for Aqaba, which aims at developing medium-sized tourism enterprises and attracting high-end touristic customers.

Science in aid of the institutional reform of Aqaba
A fully operational environment and food laboratory was established with the support of the European Union in order to monitor and manage environment and food at Aqaba, and further for Jordan at large. The environmental laboratory enables the analysis of food as well as the evaluation and control of the environmental impact of industrial development in the area. The state-of-the art Ben Ayyam laboratory works on testing imported food to upgrade food safety and on verifying the quality of air in the region (results of daily tests will be soon posted on a screen in the middle of the town). Since 2008, the laboratory tests as well the quality of marine, domestic and swimming water. Jordanians are proud of being able to get international certifications for 52 procedures under this lab. The EU support ended in the year 2008, yet, since last year, revenues have doubled. “In a previous stage, Aqaba port used to send samples of cargo to Amman, today, the tests are done locally.” With the trust of several ministries and institutions, Ben Ayyam laboratory became more known on the national level. In 2009, a cooperation contract was signed with the United Nations World Food Program and the laboratory became responsible for testing food cargos heading to Gaza and Iraq. The lab project is a great success even if it is not profit-making yet. Its annual budget reaches 2 million Dinars. “We have fulfilled all the programme’s objectives and the European Union helped us install and develop the free trade zone,” says Ayman Suleiman, present manager of Ben Ayyam laboratory, and former coordinator of the European programme ASEZA for several years.

Numbers and facts
Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority is today 9 years old. During those 9 years, Aqaba witnessed significant development and has been transformed into a cultural and commercial prominence. New routes, new quarters, new five-star hotels have been developed. Aqaba’s total population has grown from 60,000 inhabitants 10 years ago, to 100,000 today.

Salim Maghroubi, environment and investment commissioner, proudly announces some numbers. “In 2001, the local authority of Aqaba could not live without the financial support of the central government. In 9 years, this zone poured 100 million dinars into Jordan’s treasury. From 2000 hotel rooms few years ago, today Aqaba’s hotels provide 4000 rooms. Two university campuses were established in the region and hospitals are under renovation. We have attracted investments for a total of 18 billion dollars.” Investors in the region are mainly Arabs: Saudi citizens, Egyptians or Lebanese. Three new touristic projects are ongoing in this area: Tala Bay, on the East side, close to the Saudi frontier; Saraya and Ayla, also in the West of Aqaba. The overall image is a mixture of apartments and luxurious villas, a golf court, a lagoon, malls, community centers, and more than 10 five-star hotels. “Aqaba is the portal to reach both Petra and Wadi el Rum. We are not competing with Taba or Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt,” says Mona Hawas, former director of tourism operations and actual director of investment operations.

Salim Maghroubi focuses on the goal of including Aqaba in other European regional projects, such as the Mediterranean coastal management project. Tripoli in Lebanon, Gdansk in Poland, Rabat in Morocco and Aqaba in Jordan should be part of this project with Marseille, France. “Our goal is to put Aqaba on the world map. It is with cooperation that we can get inspired from the experience of others.”

N.B: Text translated from French by Eurojar team