Apparently so, as the flow of Arabic language students who once swarmed the streets of Damascus and Beirut now turn towards Amman for a safer learning location:

“I’ve traveled to Morocco but not to the heart of the Middle East, and Jordan was that good entry point,” said Liza Hester, an Arabic student from Maine’s Colby College.

She speculated that places like Egypt and Yemen would be more difficult to navigate and said her college would not give her credit for Arabic classes taken in countries on the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory list, such as Syria and Lebanon. …

“Amman is like the Kansas City of the Middle East,” Kelly Nau, a 26-year-old Los Angeles native who came to Jordan to work as a nurse, said between puffs from a waterpipe at one of the city’s stylish cafes.

It may not have the “allure of Damascus, Beirut or Jerusalem,” but, Nau adds: “It is stable.” [Source]

During my PhD I noticed that the majority, if not all, the language students travelled to Cairo and Damascus, yet never Amman - until this academic year.

Indubitably, this flow is long overdue; Amman is an awesome city and Jordan a splendid country.

Nevertheless, with Syria and Lebanon placed on the advisory list, the potential decline in students visiting these equally stunning states could be to their economic and social detriment.

For now, however, Jordan has captured a boon; it can only be hoped that the shift will not leave Beirut and Damascus entirely in the cold.