New Vision on Tourism Promotion in Syria Tackled

Syria, the cradle of civilizations, is planning to have an active tourism media to explain the attractive image of the Syrian society and heritage sites to the peoples all over the world.

Ministries of Information, Tourism and Culture are the key parties in such a plan which also requires the support from the Syrian expatriates,  businessmen and foreign reporters and writers.

The main reason behind raising this topic during the current crisis in Syria is that most world media outlets systematically work to distort the image of the Syrian society and to portray Syria as hotbed of terrorism, extremism,  Minister of tourism said.

Tourism to be community culture

Eng. Besher Yazigy, who was speaking in a workshop held on Sunday in al-Assad Library in Damascus, underscored that the ministry is seeking to turn tourism into community culture linked with the daily life of the citizen and investor.  

He stressed the importance of creating a platform to shore up the tourism sector through media outlets.

This requires the industry of tourism, which was described by the Dean of Faculty of Information in Damascus University as “very complicated” because the product of such industry is virtual.

Beneficiaries from damages

Dr. Botrous al-Hallaq also talked about the world heritage sites in Syria that have been damaged by foreign-backed terrorist groups during the ongoing war on the country, clarified that the beneficiary of pulverizing  Syria’s civilization and historical sites are the nearby touristic states, mainly Turkey and the Zionist entity [Israel].

On her part, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism in Damascus Countryside, affirmed the necessity of defining the strategies of tourism media and studying the correlation between tourism media and community.

Dr. Reem Ramadan also sees that it is important to draw up a promotion plan  to have an idea about the situation of media and tourism promotion in western and nearby states.

Internal tourism

While Dr. Reem Haddad from the ministry of information called for encouraging the internal tourism to help establish foreign tourism which necessitates inviting foreign writers and journalists to visit Syria.  

From her viewpoint, the active participation in the international tourism symposiums and the exhibitions is essential to hit the goal.

Further suggestions were made by the Director of Promotion and Marketing in the ministry of Tourism, Eng. Bassam Barsik, who said that the new vision of tourism promotion demands moving toward new markets that export tourists, studying  new tourist products and concentrating on reactivating the internal tourism, electronic promotion and holding external activities.

“Tourism media aims at shedding light on Syria’s civilization, encouraging internal tourism, enhancing the sense of belonging and making tourists aware of respecting the Syrian community’s values and principles, ”Eng. Barsik clarified.

Five thousand sites in Syria

There are 5.000 archeological sites in Syria, but only six sites have been added to the world heritage list and to the global map in the UNESCO, archeology experts say.

The six sites are the old city of Damascus, ancient Bosra city, Palmyra, old city of Aleppo, Crac des Chevaliers [ al-Hesn Citadel] and Salaheddin citadel.

In all, the topic of tourism media and tourism promotion is a big challenge in the current circumstances but it is not impossible.

Reported by: Basma Qaddour