The Arab Center for Tourist Media has awarded prizes to a number of personnel who won the 2019 Oscar Prize in Tourist Media during the functions of the 11th session of the "Arab Forum for Tourist Media" that has been held in Cairo.

Present at the ceremony were Engineer Ahmad Yousef, chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Board representing Minister of Tourism Rania Mashat; Dr. Taleb Rifa'i, former secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, and a large number of officials in the field of media. More than 75 journalists and specialists in the field of tourism representing 40 media and press organizations from 13 Arab countries also took part in the ceremony.

Jordan was awarded three prizes as Fr. Dr. Rif'at Bader received the award for the best news article on tourism published in Al-Rai daily on October 17, 2018 on religious tourism. Ms. Wafa' Subh of Ad Dustour daily received a second prize, while Bushra Nairoukh of Jordan News Agency, Petra, received a prize for the best documentary film about the program, "Aqaba is the World Tourism Destination".

After receiving the prize, Fr. Dr. Rif'at Bader expressed pride that his article published in the Jordanian daily Al Rai was rated as the best article. Noting that this initiative brings together Arab media people specialized in tourism as a sign of Arab unity among all countries, he added that media and tourism go hand-in-hand since tourism cannot develop unless accompanied by a huge promotional media; furthermore media remains incompetent if it is not assigned the duty of supporting tourism as part of its mission.

He pointed out that tourism in Jordan has been bolstered as this is attributed to the security and stability prevailing in Jordan, as well as to the efforts exerted by both the Ministry of Tourism and the Jordan Tourism Board in addition to the media outlets which promote the major touristic sites in Jordan. He also pointed out that since last year, the National Tourism Council has been restructured so that the work would be participatory and innovative so that that all parties involved in tourism would cooperate in order to project a civilized image and upgrade coordination in tourism efforts so as to further develop this basic product in the economy of our beloved country.

He concluded his statement by saying that Christian religious tourism in particular is entitled to further development, given the efforts of the Churches which form a bridge between Christians in the West and the holy places in our beloved homeland in their capacity as an integral part of the Holy Land.