Some Berlin travel agencies have started offering tours to Syria

Some Berlin travel agencies have started offering tours to Syria next year. In a country where the civil war has been going on for ten years, they promise beautiful sights and delicious gastronomic experiences, the Deutsche Welle agency reported. However, the German Foreign Ministry discourages travel to the Middle East. In addition, opposition groups have criticized the trips because they say similar tourism can improve the government's image of authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad and become a source of foreign currency for the Syrian regime. According to the Berlin travel agency Rocky Road Travel, the situation in Syria is gradually returning to normal, which allows tourism to resume. "People are very curious and want to see the earth with their own eyes," said company founder Shane Horan. According to him, the travel agency already has one trip occupied next year and will arrange another according to interest. The Soviet Tours office attracts tourists to Syria for ancient monuments and gastronomic delicacies, which focuses on trips to countries in the former sphere of Soviet influence. Without a ticket, a nine-day trip costs about 2,000 euros. Syria made it possible to travel for tourism in October, when it started issuing tourist visas again. Travel agencies from Britain and China also plan to travel to the country where tourism accounted for a tenth of gross domestic product before the civil war next year. The tour is organized from the Asian country by the Young Pioneer Tours office, which is famous for organizing trips to the DPRK. However, the German Foreign Ministry warns against traveling to Syria, pointing to the ongoing conflict and the unstable security situation. In addition, the German embassy does not operate in Damascus, so German tourists risk not having access to consular services if necessary. The Syrian opposition center SJAC, based in Washington, rejects the tours, saying that the Assad government is using tourism to improve its image abroad. In addition, tourists are a welcome source of foreign currency, which Damascus lacks. "Given that it is impossible for tourists to obtain the Syrian currency outside the country, the government can count on tourists bringing it (foreign) money," says SJAC. Among other things, Damascus can thus avoid the sanctions imposed on it by many countries around the world. According to Nahla Osmanová from the German association to help Syria, tourists should realize that they will probably see only one side of the Syrian situation during the trip. However, some people do not even visit Syria with Berlin travel agencies. "Currently, journalists cannot take part in our trips to the country (Syria)," Soviet Tours said, referring to a Syrian government decree. It also forbids human rights defenders from entering the country. In 2010, before the outbreak of the civil war, more than ten million people visited Syria. Tourism experienced a certain recovery in 2019, when, according to government statistics, 2.4 million visitors came to the country from abroad. But only a very small part were Europeans, according to Deutsche Welle. Syria closed again from tourism last year, with the start of the covid-epidemic.