Syria has drawn up a list of 64 tourist projects open to private investments to meet the increasing influx of visitors, said Tourism Minister Kassem Makdad, quoted on Tuesday, July 24, by a local newspaper.
The minister added in an interview with the business weekly Al-Iqtissadiya that 86 projects, mainly hotels, are under development across Syria. According to official projections, the number of foreign visitors will increase to 12 million in 2020, compared to three million currently.
Syria is among the region's richest in historical sites, but tourism is under-developed because of a lack of investments and political instability caused by the conflict with Israel.
Experts put at between $1.5 and tow billion dollars the contribution of tourism to Syria's gross domestic product (GDP) of $17 billion.
The government undertook last year to facilitate investments in tourism by setting a 15-day deadline for the granting of new licenses. Investors had to wait previously for months, and sometimes more than a year, to carry out projects, because of bureaucracy and corruption. ― (AFP, Ankara)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
