Past three years showed a surge in Syria’s tourism : Minister

Thursday, May 10, 2018

In the last three years the tourism indicators of Syria has improved according to the Syrian Minister of Tourism Bisher Yazij.

During the participation in the regional conference of the World Tourism Organization in the Middle East the minister revealed that in 2013 tourism declined by 92 percent. Over the past three years the rates have increased by 28-30 percent showing an evidence of recovery.

Due to the anti terror war in 2011 the Syrian tourism sector suffered significant damage during the period of anti-terror war mentioned the minister.

The losses of the sector reached 300 billion Syrian Pounds(580 million dollars) during the seven-year conflict.

The greatest damage in recent was because of terrorist attacks on the mosques, churches and shrines which also targeted antiquities and monuments.

He stressed that some tourist facilities were leveled to ground but it is now being restored. Excavations were done by terrorists to obtain antiquities and they sold it finance their terrorist acts. Under the pretext that the antiquities and monuments were idols they destroyed them.

Many restoration works  are on by the Syrian government to reduce the negative efforts of terrorist attacks on the archeological sites. At present the Syrian army is liberating many areas from the grip of terrorist organization.

By now 1,200 tourist establishments have returned to work and the hotel occupancy exceeded 90 percent. Sometimes it reaches 100 percent in season but it never goes below 60 %.

The minister affirmed the new plans to show ‘the pulse of life in Syria’. The tourism sector will be revived considering the entertainment, social and economic aspects.

Before the war Syria attracted 8.5 million tourists. The country has 63 citadels and 10,000 archaeological sites along with other tourism component.

Yaziji stated that there has been a great focus on domestic tourism and it constitutes 40-60% of the tourism sector. The investment sector so far is good and the Syrian government stood strongly with investors during wartime.

The coming period will focus mostly on business tourism with China and other tourism programs showing important economic cooperation with China.

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