What is the Syrian tourism development strategy and which are the opportunities for FDI in the sector?
Dr. Saadalla Agha Al Kalaa: We received 3.4 million tourists in 2005. The growth rate is about 15% per year which is lower than our target goal. At global scale the tourism industry growth rate was 3% per year between 2000-2005. In the Middle East region tourism growth rate was 8.3%. “Syria challenge now is to provide adequate accommodation facilities to facilitate the increase in the number of tourists we receive” Syria challenge now is to provide adequate accommodation facilities to facilitate the increase in the number of tourists we receive. This year the new 4 Seasons hotel was opened in Damascus and there are a good number of new hotels that are being opened, but we still need more accommodation facilities to accommodate the tourism influx into Syria. If the accommodation facilities are over occupied, the quality of service will be low. The hotel occupancy capacity should be ideally less than 70%. We advice the hotels to maintain the quality standards of service so as to comply w