Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus – SANA – Participants in the Syrian Youth Forum for Tourism 2023 highlighted the need to internally and externally promote tourism in Syria and traditional craft products along with supporting them through vocational schools to ensure their continuity and development.
The Forum was organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Distinction and Creativity Agency over a period of eight days.
During the closing session held at Damascus-based Sheraton Hotel, the participants called for launching special application to organize the volunteering process, provided that the volunteer campaigns be specific to raising awareness about archaeological and historical sites, and linking it to the recycling process that contributes to preserving the environment.
The participants stressed the necessity of working to establish a national company specialized in investing in the products of traditional craft markets and marketing them in an optimal way and working to develop marketing and public relations plans for tourism in Syria by the two ministries of Information and Tourism using various marketing tools and various media, especially social networking sites.
They also called for amending licensing standards for tourist facilities to use alternative energy sources.
They pointed out the importance of using modern technical methods to describe archaeological sites to help document them in an optimal manner.
Furthermore, the participants pointed out the necessity of working to facilitate the procedures for obtaining an entry visa, reducing its cost and the duration of obtaining it, and adopting electronic means for this issue, in addition to improving the reality of border crossings.
Minister of Culture, Lubanah Mshaweh, said that the archaeological site is a story of a social environment that existed there, adding that the Ministry seeks to develop the museum presentation with its methods and techniques.
Minister of Information, Boutros al-Hallaq, pointed out that using social media correctly is considered the greatest support for media that has an institutional message, and through it, conscious youth can transform negative challenges into marketing or educational opportunities, some of which will benefit institutions.
Minister al-Hallaq pointed out the need for school curricula to include communication skills so that the young generation can express and communicate their ideas and knowledge easily and clearly.
Minister of Education, Muhammad Amer Mardini, pointed out the importance of the ideas and proposals presented by the participants in the forum, especially the inclusion of some of the issues they raised in the curricula so that students can know the hidden treasures in their country at the tourism level.
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Distinction and Creativity Agency, Thaer Lahham, said that the close relation between culture and tourism produces conscious youth connected to their homeland and forms the nucleus of local community leaders capable of contributing to the development of society and its local economy.
The forum, which was launched on Sep 8th , was attended by 50 young men and women aged between 15 and 18 years from various Syrian cities and towns. It included tourist tours in several archaeological and tourist areas, and aims to achieve new dimensions of sustainable tourism.
It will be a mini-version of the 1st Global Youth Tourism Summit (GYTS), which was held in 2022 in Italy with Syrian participation.
ALI, Baraa
