Syria

Nearly six million tourists visit Syria in 2008: reports

Umayyad Mosque - Damascus / Image via travelblog.org

DAMASCUS — A total of 5.9 million foreign tourists visited Syria in 2008, a rise of 15 percent from the previous year, according to the tourism ministry, cited by local media.

More than 3.3 million of the visitors came from Arab countries, an increase of 13 percent from 2007, with 1.1 million coming from elsewhere as well as more than one million emigrants of Syrian origin.

Income from tourism reached nearly 3.5 billion dollars, while investment in projects for the industry totalled around 8.2 billion dollars, the same source said.

Syrian authorities are focusing particularly on tourism to try to attract investors as the country's oil sector, a major source of foreign revenue, has begun to decline.

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