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A handicrafts shop in Old Damascus - Source: Reuters -
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Tourist numbers in Syria rose 12% last year from 2008 levels,
with Arabs accounting for the bulk of visitors, government
statistics showed.
Syria, which contains several important sites of antiquity,
including the ancient city of Palymra, received around six million
tourists, including 1.1 million Syrian expatriates and 3.6 million
Arabs, in 2009, the state media said.
The government deems almost any foreigner who enters to be a
tourist, a practice criticised by industry specialists as
misleading.
Syria has been under US sanctions since 2004 for its support of
militant groups, but relations with the West have improved and
Washington is seeking a rapprochement.
The ruling Baath Party has taken steps to liberalise the economy
after decades of nationalisation and bans on private
enterprise.
In the last few years new hotels have been built, mainly in
Damascus and Aleppo, but fewer of them are of international quality
than in neighbouring Lebanon or Jordan, which have put more
resources into developing their tourism sector.
The Baath Party took power in Syria in 1963, banning all opposition
and imposing emergency law that remains in force.
