Identifying the pattern of Syrian tourism development in the post-crisis period"with an emphasis on the city of Damascus"

Introduction

The Syrian crisis, involving armed conflicts by quasi-military groups and terrorist activities by organizations like ISIS, began in 2011, inflicting countless damages to the national resources and capital. According to the United Nations, over 5,440,000 Syrians were registered as refugees in various countries by December 2017. Considering the population of 21 million at the onset of the crisis in 2011, a considerable portion of the population migrated. Additionally, significant casualties and injuries have been inflicted on the human resources. Syria witnessed 1,949 terrorist incidents from 1970 to 2016, with approximately 1,800 occurring from 2001 to 2016, constituting 92% of all incidents. From 2011 to 2016, 95% of the casualties occurred from terrorist incidents in Syria. Damage to the national infrastructure (physical and economic) is another aspect of the harm inflicted, with an estimated $41 billion in damages to infrastructure in six major cities , according to the World Bank. Economists forecast a 6.3% growth in the tourism sector in 2018 compared to the gross domestic product growth. Given these factors, Syria needs reconstruction of its infrastructure and compensation for the damages caused by the domestic crisis. Therefore, comprehensive planning and the selection of tourism development strategies are considered a strategy for development and compensation for damages caused by years of war and a top priority for reviving the social and economic sectors of Syria. In this regard, the role of Damascus as the national capital, the center of political, economic, and legal decisions, is particularly important. Furthermore, government attention and protection during the crisis have minimized damage to the infrastructure of this city. Consequently, the higher security of this city compared to other regions causes a higher priority and cost for the presentation of the tourism development model with an emphasis on Damascus. The success of Damascus in promoting tourism development goals can serve as a model for other regions of Syria. In general, this research aims to identify concepts and principles to clarify the rapid and cost-effective development of Syria's tourism engine.

Methodology

This research has an applied methodology and is among the qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews are used for data collection. The statistical population consists of two groups, experts (economic activists and managers in the tourism management sector in Syria) and researchers (professors and students in the tourism field in Syria with a track record of publishing articles and books about tourism). A total of 30 in-depth interviews were conducted. Furthermore, MAXQDA 2020 qualitative analysis software was used to analyze the interview data. Grounded theory serves as the theoretical framework for the research.

Results

The tourism functions are at the primary level of the identified themes. These functions include 10 cases. The role of tourism in the national economy (pre-war), tourism and peace, expanding restaurant-dining functions, and the effects of tourism development on the economy are the most important factors. The second theme includes barriers to tourism development, including sub-codes such as infrastructural factors, human resources, political-security barriers, economic barriers, and neglect of tourism branding and marketing. Each code related to barriers to tourism development comprises multiple factors highlighted at various levels. The third theme includes the requirements for tourism development based on interviews. This theme includes three sub-codes: Comprehensive and coordinated tourism development planning, health expansion, pandemic control, infrastructure reconstruction by the government sector, international tourism, domestic tourism, focus on tourist hubs in Damascus, security expansion, tourism expansion, trust as the main premise of tourism development, capital provision through taxation, and tourism marketing and branding. The frequency of repetition of items for the codes is presented in the table below. The fourth theme of the interviews includes target markets. This theme consists of sub-codes such as Arab and Persian Gulf countries, Iranian-Shiite pilgrims, and traditional historical attractions preferred by Europeans. The scores of the first and second sub-codes are presented in the following table. The fifth theme of the interviews covers the types of tourism. These types include sub-codes such as the potential for ecotourism development, urban tourism, dark tourism, and spiritual-religious tourism. The following table describes these items and the number of repetitions for each item.

Conclusion

Six main themes, emphasized by experts and researchers are first identified: The functions of tourism, barriers to tourism development, requirements for tourism development, priorities of target markets, types of tourism, and tourism stakeholders. Each of these themes has been emphasized with various branches. The higher frequency of certain factors indicates their importance. In other words, the barriers to tourism development, with 91 repetitions, have been the most important aspect of Syria's tourism development. Following this theme, the requirements for tourism development with 53 repetitions, types of tourism with 31 repetitions, tourism functions with 19 repetitions, priorities of target markets with 11 repetitions, and tourism stakeholders with 6 repetitions have been highlighted. In general, codes such as "spiritual-religious tourism (not necessarily religious tourism)" with 9 repetitions, "weaknesses in advertising, narration, and branding" with 5 repetitions, "energy constraints in the tourism sector" with 5 repetitions, and "budget shortfall and reduction in government's tax revenue preventing tourism investment" with 4 repetitions have been the most emphasized factors by experts and researchers in the tourism sector in Syria.