Tourism Sector in Daraa Recovering

The tourism sector in the Syrian province of Daraa, which has been targeted by the systematic terror attacks of terrorist organizations during the eight-year war on Syria, is now on the mend as many damaged tourism facilities have lately kicked into gear and started to work again after the province was liberated from terrorism by the Syrian Arab army.

Since Daraa was declared free of terrorism, the citizens in cooperation with the Tourism Directorate in the province have spared no effort to work hard on ground to rehabilitate and reconstruct the damaged tourist facilities in order to revive the tourism movement and start receiving local and foreign tourist delegations again.

 The Arab Centre for Tourism Sciences in Daraa is one of the tourism and educational institutions, which have been exposed to acts of sabotage and destruction carried out by terrorist groups, but now it is under rehabilitation.

Jehad Ibrahim Atefeh, Director of the center, told SANA correspondent that “the center was closed during the crisis between 2012-2018 because of terrorism, but this year, we have started maintenance and rehabilitation works supported by the ministry of tourism and carried out in cooperation with the students enrolled in the center.

He said that 90 percent of the damage has been fixed and the center received new batch of students who themselves had taken part in the maintenance works.

The enrolled students, according to Atefeh, are briefed on the terror attacks that targeted the archeological and cultural sites in Daraa and on the rich history of the province in order to encourage them to preserve Syria’s rich and deep-rooted culture.

Some of the students at the center expressed their sorrow over the systematic war that targeted Syria with the aim of destroying its civilization and cultural heritage. They expressed their commitment to defending their country and expressed hope that after finishing their study, they will have the opportunity to brief tourism groups that visit Daraa on the great and rich history of the province and to explain to them how the terrorist organizations attempted to destory and undermine an old civilization by vandalizing and  destroying archeological sites and looting and smuggling the Syrian artifacts.

Daraa Tourism Director Yasser Al-Sa’di, on his part, stressed that the province’s tourism sector is notably recovering, pointing out that several internal and foreign tourist delagtions have visited the province.

He indicated that the tourism directorate has provided facilitations to owners of private tourism establishments to reconstruct and rehabilitate their tourist facilities and worked out a tourism promotion program that include holding a number of tourism and heritage festivals.

It is worth mentioning that a few months after liberating Daraa from terrorism and attaining security there, foreign tourists from France, Canada and Switzerland visited recently the ancient city of Bosra, its theatre and other archeological sites in the province.

Rawaa Ghanam