An account connected to Syria’s Tourism Ministry has released a dozen promotional videos over the past three weeks showing scenic shots of its beaches and ancient sites in an effort to spur tourism in the war-torn country, the Washington Post reported Friday.
One of the videos, titled "Syria Always Beatiful" in misspelled English, was shot with a drone hovering over the turquoise sea while hundreds of people wade in the water, ride jet skis, or relax on the beach. Upbeat electronic music plays in the background.
Another video shows a shot of the UNESCO World Heritage site in the city of Palmyra that was liberated from the Islamic State in March after the terrorist group destroyed ancient artifacts and landmarks there.
The videos uploaded to YouTube by Syria Tourism make no reference to the government’s onslaught against rebel forces opposing President Bashar al Assad’s regime, which has killed most of the estimated 400,000 people who have died during the country’s five-year cvil war while millions more have been displaced. They also make no mention of Assad’s chemical weapons attacks against his own people, or of ISIS’s footprint in the country.
In 2011, as the Syrian civil war was just beginning, some 8.5 million tourists traveled to the country, generating nearly $8.3 billion in tourism revenue, according to the Syrian Ministry of Tourism. The tourism industry constituted roughly 13.5 percent of Syria’s GDP in 2011 and made up about 13 percent of all jobs in the country, the ministry told the Post.
Two years later, Tourism Minister Bishr Riad Yaziji announced the country had lost $1.5 billion in revenue since the war began in March 2011. He also noted "incalculable" losses due to the damage of ancient sites, including the Temple of Bel in Palmyra and the Citadel in Aleppo. By 2014, Syrian officials estimated only 400,000 tourists had visited the country primarily for religious reasons, though analysts predict the number is lower.
Still, as the civil war ravages on, Yaziji said the country was prepared to revitalize tourism. He touted immigration data on his Facebook page that reported visitors to Syria increased 30 percent since last year.
"After the liberation of some of our cities, which once used to be major touristic highlights, we noticed that their residents were willing to revitalize local tourism," Yaziji told Russia’s Sputnik news agency, referring to advances by government troops, according to the Post.
The United States and the United Kingdom are among a number of nations that continue to warn citizens against all travel to Syria due to ongoing violence and terrorist activity.