DAMASCUS, (SANA)-The number of Arab and foreign tourists that came to Syria in August witnessed a remarkable rise, reaching at 505.183 without Iraqi people compared to 398.679 in 2007 with an increase rating to 27%.

"The Arab tourists without the Iraqis rose to 386.540 in August if compared to 302.112 in 2007… and the number of European tourists that visited Syria since the beginning of 2008 till August reached at 118.643 compared to 96568 during the same period of 2007 with a rise of 23%," Ministry of Tourism said in a statement.

The Ministry added that the total number of tourists that visited Syria during the last eight months reached to 2.538.563 compared to 2.192.002 during the same period of 2007 with 16% increase.

Mazen