Syria: Walking the Silk Road

 
Standing at the crossroad between the east and west, and regarded as one of the main trading routes on the ancient Silk Road; Syria has long been held in high esteem by international and regional travellers. Sarah Campbell reports on the country’s tourism potential.
 

 
Syria boasts a history dating back 12,000 years. It offers over 3,000 archaeological sites and has been settled by 35 different civilisations from the Sumerian, Amorite and Byzantine, to the Gassanid, Islamic and Ottoman empires. The country boasts an impressive list of firsts, including the first alphabet, the first library and the first written musical note, and for this it has proved a magnet to the curious, the cultural and the creative.
 
Today, the Levant country, which includes a Mediterranean coast, rugged mountains and fertile plains, welcomes more than 3 m tourists a year, and has enjoyed annual tourism growth of 15% since 2000. For Syria, it seems, hospitality is big business.
 
A total of 3.2 m tourists visited Syria last year, not counting those arriving from Lebanon or Iraq as refugees. By 2010, Syria aims to attract 7.5 m overnight guests, and hopes to see an increase in tourism expenditure to $5 bn.
 

 
As a result of this predicted growth, tourism and hospitality development is rife in Syria, as mixed use developments, hotels, restaurants and retail space make it through planning and development to construction and opening.
 
Most recently, Starwood Hotels & Resorts opened the $50 m Sheraton Aleppo Hotel. The 199-room property is owned by the local Bab Al-Faraj for Tourism and Hotels. The hotel has three restaurants: Mediterraneanthemed The Silk Road, Leonardo’s Italian restaurant and Ikebana. Leisure facilities include a swimming pool, health club and Turkish baths.
 
The property marked its soft opening in February, becoming Aleppo’s first internationally branded hotel. ”Everyone has been waiting for us for some time, both international and more locally, from Damascus. As a five-star property, we can provide what no one else can,“ says Hazem Ibrahim, director of sales and marketing, Sheraton Aleppo Hotel.
 
In addition, Sheraton signed an agreement in February to open its sixth hotel in Syria in a few years time – the Four Points by Sheraton Tartous in Syria’s second largest port city, after Lattakia.
 
Back in Damascus and market newcomer Four Seasons is still enjoying success as it enters its second year of operation. The 231-room hotel is 30% owned by the government, and provided a much needed injection of quality into the Damascus market when it soft opened in December 2005, bringing a number of firsts to the market.
 
”Four Seasons Hotel Damascus was the first hotel in the city to offer an airport greeting/limousine service and a concierge department. Also new to the city, our health club is available 24-hours a day and we have high-speed internet access in all guest rooms and wireless in all public areas of the hotel. Four Seasons is the only hotel that offers high-speed internet access in guest rooms,“ explainsJulian Crane, director of marketing, Four Seasons Hotel Damascus.
 

 
The full article contains the following stories:
 
A Damascene Home away from Home
 
Built in 1737, Beit Jabri is one of the oldest houses in the old city of Damascus. The house has been converted to an open-air café and restaurant in the early nineties. Today, Beit Jabri is one of the most attractive eat-out places in Damascus, serving traditional Syrian and Lebanese mezze, offering shisha and where people come to play backgammon and gossip.
 
True Cuisine from Aleppo
 
Rising in a pillar of timeless architecture beside a lovely public garden and an ancient mosque in a prime area of downtown Damascus, Four Seasons Hotel Damascus is within easy reach of embassies, business, retail and cultural sites, and for that reason its food and beverage outlets welcome a high number of local diners.
 
Aspiring to International Standards
 
To improve quality and service standards in the foodservice business of Syria’s second biggest town Aleppo is not an easy task. Magdy Sharshafji has accepted the challenge. The young restaurant entrepreneur has ambitious plans. His goal is to turn a family-run business into a catering empire.
 

 
| 25 June 2007 | Sarah Campbell |