It has sun, sea and a wealth of historical remains. It is also fighting wars on three fronts, with regime opponents regularly being rounded up for torture and imprisonment — but that has not put off the first wave of tourists to book holidays in Syria since the coronavirus pandemic.
The authorities in Damascus have begun issuing tourist visas again, which were in theory available throughout the decade-long civil war but were stopped during the pandemic.
Travel companies across Europe and further afield have taken up the challenge, putting together tours emphasising the country’s cultural heritage, while also stressing that they will not be conventional package holidays.
“Syria has endured a turbulent few years with most of the country ravaged by civil war,” Lupine Travel, one UK-based company which specialises in tours to “difficult” countries, admits on its website brochure.
Nevertheless, the tour operator will take participants willing to pay £1,395 for the week’s visit to Damascus, the second city Aleppo, which until five years ago was divided between government and rebel forces, the classical site of Palmyra, once occupied by Islamic State, the crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers, and the coastal resort of Latakia. The first four tours, starting next spring, are already fully booked.
Advertisement
Developing the country for tourism was one of the economic reforms adopted by President Assad when he succeeded his father Hafez as leader in 2000.
Arguably, the refurbishment of the old cities of Damascus and Aleppo, while their working-class suburbs remained neglected and impoverished, was one of many triggers for the resentment that underlay the war which started in 2011.
Gentrification in the cities produced boutique hotels set in historic courtyards, merchant houses, beautiful souks and historical sites backed up by finds from archaeological digs that sprang up across the country.
Some sites were damaged by the conflict, including the Great Mosque in Aleppo, the city’s souk, and Palmyra, whose most famous temple, dedicated to the god Baal, was blown up by Isis.
Although the Assad regime, backed by its allies Russia and Iran, now controls about 75 per cent of the country, hostilities are still simmering with jihadist groups in Idlib, northwest Syria, Turkish-backed forces in northern Aleppo province and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast. Israel also stages regular airstrikes against regime and Iranian targets in Syria.
Advertisement
However, James Willcox, who runs Untamed Borders, which is also beginning tours next year, said his company had assessed the risks and decided they were manageable.
Syria is also subject to EU, British and American sanctions, but he said that tourism was not covered.
“What remains of the conflict is in the north of the country,” he said. “We thought we could keep the risks of becoming caught up in that to an acceptable level.”
Syrian opposition groups are opposed to “normalising” the regime, including through tourism, saying visits by westerners are used as propaganda. “How can any news or travel agency do such advertising for a country where the regime still holds large numbers of people in detention?” said Bassam Barabandi, a former diplomat who defected early in the uprising and is now based in the US.
However, Willcox said that even a few tourists brought hope to ordinary Syrian people. “We work in countries with regimes that we don’t feel have an unblemished record,” he said. “There are benefits to tourism, and it can also be used as propaganda for the government — we are super aware of that. But we always try to maximise the positive effects.”
Advertisement
Most tours start in Beirut, from where tourists travel by road to Syria. Once over the border, the British government leaves them in no doubt that they are, apart from their tour company, on their own.
“The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Syria,” its official guidance says.
