DAMASCUS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- As many as 1.3 million foreigners from 77 nationalities visited Syria last year, the Syrian Tourism Ministry said Wednesday.
About 237,000 of the visitors entered the country through the International Airport of Damascus, while 570,000 others entered through the Jdaidet Yabous border crossing with Lebanon, the ministry was cited by the pro-government al-Watan newspaper as saying.
Most of the people who visited the country last year were of nationalities that almost refrained from coming to Syria during the seven-year crisis, the ministry said, according to the report.
It added that among the visitors were Americans, Iraqis, Jordanians, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Bahrainis.
Those coming on religious tourism were counted at 161,000 visitors, said the report, adding that the profit share of the government-run hotels in Damascus, Latakia and Aleppo cities reached 2 billion Syrian Pounds in 2017, a 43 percent increase from 2016.
