Syria recorded a total of two million tourists in 2019, ranking 59th in the world in absolute terms.
That smaller countries regularly perform lower in a comparison of the absolute number of guests, is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Syria, the result is much more comparable picture: With 0.11 tourists per resident, Syria ranked 114th in the world. In Western Asia, it ranked 13th.
In 2011, Syria generated around 1.82 billion US dollars in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 16.39 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 2 percent of all international tourism receipts in Western Asia.
On average, each of the tourists arriving in 2011 spent about 266 US dollars.
Development of the tourism sector in Syria from 1995 to 2019
The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Syria each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g., crew members of ships or flights are also not considered tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.
Data in the chart are given in millions of tourists. The red line represents the average of all 18 countries in Western Asia.
Revenues from tourism
In 1995, tourism revenues amounted to 1.26 billion USD, or about 2.5 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 2.25 million tourists at that time and roughly 558 USD per person. Within 16 years, the country's dependence on tourism has increased slightly. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales were $1.82 billion billion, 2.8 percent of gross national product. Thus, each visitor spent an average of $280 on their vacation in Syria.
Full figures for 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, are not currently available. However, national and international travel has been restricted worldwide, and some countries have even been closed off from the outside world altogether. Dramatic revenue losses are expected, with some countries experiencing losses of up to more than 80%.
All data for Syria in detail
Year
Number of tourists
Receipts
% of GNP
Receipts per tourist
2019
2.42 m
2018
1.80 m
2017
1.29 m
2016
1.04 m
2011
6.48 m
1.82 bn $
2.8 %
280 $
2010
10.97 m
6.31 bn $
2.5 %
575 $
2009
7.72 m
3.78 bn $
1.7 %
490 $
2008
6.95 m
3.18 bn $
1.5 %
457 $
2007
5.43 m
2.97 bn $
1.7 %
547 $
2006
5.68 m
2.11 bn $
1.4 %
372 $
2005
5.86 m
2.04 bn $
1.5 %
347 $
2004
6.33 m
1.88 bn $
1.7 %
297 $
2003
4.84 m
877.00 m $
0.92 %
181 $
2002
4.68 m
970.00 m $
1.1 %
207 $
2001
3.67 m
1.15 bn $
1.3 %
313 $
2000
3.41 m
1.08 bn $
1.3 %
317 $
1999
2.68 m
1.03 bn $
1.4 %
384 $
1998
2.46 m
1.02 bn $
1.4 %
413 $
1997
2.33 m
1.01 bn $
1.5 %
434 $
1996
2.44 m
1.17 bn $
1.9 %
478 $
1995
2.25 m
1.26 bn $
2.5 %
558 $
Our data on tourist numbers, revenues and expenditures are based on information from the World Tourism Organization. However, to ensure international comparability, the data for some years or countries were manually researched and corrected if they obviously included visitors without overnight stays. In these cases, the data were taken from the official communications of the respective national tourism authorities.
The World Tourism Organization additionally points out that in some countries, the number of tourists is only counted at airports, while in others they are also counted at border crossings or even hotels. A comprehensive and reliable indication is therefore hardly possible in any country.
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