Pro-democracy revolts across the Arab world are taking their toll on tourism in cash-strapped Jordan, where revenues from the key source of hard currency earnings have dropped by 16 per cent this year.

Tourism generated $3 billion last year, with 4.8 million tourists visiting attractions such as the Nabataean rock city of Petra, the Roman town of Jerash, the Dead Sea – lowest point on earth – and the Red Sea resort of Aqaba.

There have been some protests in Jordan, but the country has been relatively quiet compared with unrest in other parts of the Middle East, which has frightened off travellers this year.

“The Arab Spring has negatively affected the tourism industry in Jordan,” Shaher Hamdan, head of Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents, said.

“Travel agents’ income has significantly dropped by around 90 per cent in 2011 compared to last year,” Mr Hamdan said, adding that 70 per cent of travel tours and trips from Europe have been cancelled this year.

“We used to have joint tourism programmes with Egypt and Syria, but instability in the two countries has affected us,” he added. Tourism, which contributes 14 per cent to the gross domestic product, and bank transfers from Jordanians working abroad are the top sources of hard currency earnings in the kingdom of nearly 6.5 million people.

With its economy hit by unrest, Jordan badly needs the money it earns from tourism.

Since January, Jordanians have been protesting to demand sweeping economic and political reform, as pro-democracy uprisings have flared with other countries in the Middle East shaking off years of tyrannical and oppressive rule.

Mahmud Baddar, general manager of Aladdin Tours, said the number of tourist groups that his company dealt with this year is down by 60 per cent compared with last year.

“The Middle East is no longer a favourite destination for foreign tourists thanks to the Arab Spring,” he said.

A recent Jordan Hotel Association study said that 7,700 room reservations in three-, four- and five-star hotels were cancelled between February and April as a result of popular uprisings in the Middle East.

“We used to receive at least two to three large tourist groups from France, Britain and Spain every month. But we have not received any groups since January,” an executive at one five-star hotel in Amman said.

“We have great attractions, but we are suffering now and reservations this year are less than 10 per cent of what we had last year,” he said.