By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
Syria has just launched a tourism campaign entitled "Syria Always Beautiful."
It sounds crazy. I watched the video - looking at it you would never guess that Syria has been at war for 5 years. The campaign pushes the beautiful beaches and great historical sites of Syria.
In 2011, before the war began, 8.5 million tourists visited Syria every year. That would amount to about 15% of their annual economy.
Since 2011 tourism has dropped to nearly nothing.
They Syrians claim 400,000 tourists came in 2014. I find that number to be an exaggeration. No way did 400,000 people visit Syria - certainly not tourists using passports. Maybe, if you include the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Hamas fighters you might reach that number.
The irony of it all is that 400,000 is also the estimate of the number of people killed by the war in Syria.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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