Syria Hopes To Welcome 2Mln Tourists In 2019 - Minister

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published November 15, 2018 | 12:14 AM

Syria hopes to attract 2 million visitors next year, including religious worshippers and health tourists, Tourism Minister Bisher Yaziji said Wednesday.

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2018) Syria hopes to attract 2 million visitors next year, including religious worshippers and health tourists, Tourism Minister Bisher Yaziji said Wednesday.

"We expect around 2 million foreign tourists to come to Syria, including from Arab countries," Yaziji told Kuwait's Al Watan newspaper.

He estimated tourism revenues this year at roughly $5.7 million and equated income the oil-rich nation received from one tourist to 10 barrels of crude.

Some 200,000 people out of 1.3 million who travelled to Syria last year were pilgrims, the minister said. He complained that health tourism needed a more organized approach in order to flourish.