Tourism Ministry aims to reach one million tourists this year

Engineer Ruba Sasila, Director of Tourism Marketing and Information at the Ministry of Tourism, revealed the launching of an electronic application to shed light on tourism components in Syria in five languages. This comes as part of the tourism promotion and marketing plan that includes an electronic platform for granting tourist visas within 24 hours, in addition to the implementation of many new tourism projects in Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia. There are also many hotels under construction that are expected to open in the next tourist season.

Regarding the preparations of the Ministry of Tourism with the start of the return of Arab and foreign tourists to Syria, Sasila confirmed that the facilities will be in more than one field.

Sasila indicated that tourism revenues during the past year amounted to 1.9 billion Syrian pounds, and the number of tourists coming to Syria reached 385 thousand in the first quarter of this year.

She pointed out that the ministry’s participation in the specialized Arab travel exhibition held in Dubai was important and positive during which the Gulf market expressed a great desire to visit Syria and the Chinese and Indian markets also demanded the establishment of agreements with tourist offices to come to Syria as a tourist destination. She referred to the invitation to attend  more than one exhibition in many countries in order to promote Syria as a tourist destination.

Sasila noted the important role of the Syrian Company for Transportation and Tourism, which is a joint public sector that implements medium tourism projects and invests in many projects suitable for domestic and popular tourism.

Regarding the Ministry of Tourism’s plan for this year and until 2030 regarding tourism promotion, Sasila referred to  the participation in the Beijing Tourism Exhibition, which is a very important exhibition, in addition to holding “tourist days” in Russia, Oman and Iraq. Joint workshops will be held with our counterparts in Iraq and Jordan to activate tourism work, in addition to an exhibition specialized in crafts and traditional industries at the end of the year in Algeria.

On activating the tourism culture, she indicated that the ministry is working to increase awareness and interest in tourism culture, whether internally or externally, through screening promotional films and publications, in addition to the application of virtual tours, which enables the tourist to get acquainted with tourist places in five languages. It is a new application that was promoted at the Dubai exhibition and received great interest.

With the advent of summer, a promotional plan and various events are being prepared, such as the World Tourism Day event, the International Flower Show, the Castle and Valley Festival, and the Bloudan Tourism Festival, in addition to many events distributed in various Syrian governorates.

Internally, we are working to establish the Syrian Youth Forum for Tourism in cooperation with the Authority for Excellence and Creativity in the month of July. It includes young people from 15 to 18 years old. Its idea is pioneering to promote tourism awareness and sustainable development and establish a base of aware, active youth and decision-makers in the field of tourism.

Sasila emphasized that the tourism movement has a direct great impact on tourism activity and the workforce by securing job opportunities in all fields such as tourist facilities, restaurants and hotels.

The Ministry of Tourism has also created heritage tourism incubators in more than one governorate and provided them with facilities to secure craftsmen, display their products and crafts, and give them shops in these heritage incubators.

Sasila underlined the importance of foreign exhibitions and the role of the Ministry of Tourism in attracting target markets, especially China, India and Russia, because of their important effect on tourism. She highlighted the importance of studies carried out by the Ministry along with the government, which in turn provides great financial facilities and budgets that suit the ambition for the development of the tourism sector.

Inas Abdulkareem