“Vacationers, Syria wants you” is the message being conveyed in a new promotional video released by them this past week that portrays Syria, where half a million people have been killed in the past five and a half years, as a vacationer’s paradise with palm tree lined beaches and jet skis racing across sparkling turquoise water.
The 103-second video published on the ministry’s YouTube page does not even mention the devastation of Syria’s cities or the innocent blood that has been spilled by the brutal regime over much of the country.
The deliberately misleading video appears to show aerial shots of the beach town of Tartous and concludes with the slogan "Syria — Always Beautiful."
Last summer, the ministry of tourism, which is controlled by Assad, launched a campaign called “Summer in Syria” that promoted regime-sponsored art fairs, film festivals, and fashion shows.
The campaign also promoted a new resort area that had been recently built just beyond the bombed out abandoned neighborhoods of Homs that included luxury accommodations and plenty of pools for the children.
At the time, campaign advertisements urged Syrians to share their own experiences of summer inside the country on Twitter using the hashtag #SummerInSyria.
Instead of the glowing responses the ministry expected to receive, Syrians began tweeting photos of bombed out buildings and injured civilians bearing sarcastic captions.
Syria is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world to visit and tourism has dropped significantly since the regime escalated its campaign of death and destruction against the Syrian people in 2011.
This year the ministry kicked off its "Tartous Tourist Festival 2016" which continues until Sept. 5 and includes assorted art, cultural heritage and sporting events on the seafront promenade.
The tourism director says that the festival will contribute to the revitalization of domestic tourism and also directs a message to the whole world that Syria will remain a country of love and the crossroads of civilizations.
Tell that to those Syrians who are being crushed under their own homes by your boss’s warplanes Mr. Director.
Tell them and us how civilized you are in Damascus and how your chemicals that burn children are simply messages telling them how much you all love them.
The festival also includes an exhibition of handicrafts, a flower show and art fair.
To be fair to the tourists and give them a realistic view of civilization in Syria the art fair should also include real life photos of the handicraft of Assad and his allies in other parts of Syria, don’t you agree Mr. Director?
After all, who wouldn’t be overwhelmed by images of Syria’s bombed out neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and marketplaces?
And instead of those boring images of people lying on the beaches and playing in the waters of Tartous you could include the much more colorful photos of children lying on stretchers and sitting in trauma related shock in the backs of ambulances.
And interspersed among the cycling events on the seafront promenade and sea cruises you could share images of overcrowded refugee camps and rubber rafts full of innocent civilians your boss has forced out of Syria with his barrel bombs and the fear of worse things happening to them and their children than being buried under their own homes.
Indeed, tourism is on the rise again — in and out of Syria — due to Assad’s interpretation of civilization as evidenced in his inane propaganda and Syria’s never-ending theater of the macabre.
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