More than 500,000 people visited on Friday the Damascus International Fair, organizers of the event said. “The number of visitors of the fair exceeded 500,000 on Friday. The entrance to the fair was closed as it could not accept so many people,” the organizers said, as quoted by the Ikhbariya broadcaster. The fair also caused serious traffic jams in Damascus.
Damascus Int. Fair admin had to close the doors after more than 1 million people already entered. The fair’s exhibition area reached a record 93k sq.meter which is the highest in the Middle East. The battle around Damascus ended only few months ago. pic.twitter.com/Oa65g2bo9j
— Fares Shehabi MP (@ShehabiFares) 14 сентября 2018 г.
Last week, Syrian Tourism Minister Besher Riad Yazji praised in an interview with Sputnik the role of Russia in the restoration of the tourism sector in Syria.
"As to numbers, last year the tourist flow amounted to 1.3 million people. This year, we see a 37-percent increase, compared to the previous year. The victories that the heroes of the Syrian army carried out in cooperation with Russia played a big role in the return of tourism to Syria," he said.
#Syria#BackToLife: By day 4 of the 60th #Damascus International #Fair the number of visitors reached 102 thousand. Besides the business part of the Fair guests can enjoy the cultural events. Most of them dedicated to the #heritage of #Levantpic.twitter.com/186aLf3oEs
— SMM Syria (@smmsyria) 10 сентября 2018 г.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Scores of people have fled the country as a result.
However, as the government has recently regained control over vast territories of the country that had been seized by terrorists, refugees have begun repatriating. According to the recent estimates of Russian National Defense Control Center, a total of 300,000 Syrian refugees and another 1.2 million internally displaced persons have returned home over the past 2.5 years.
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