YTPB Participates in the 10th Tehran International Tourism exhibition

Yemeni tourism: a strong presence in the exhibition of Iran despite the aggression.

Reported by: Akram AL-Gaolahi.

For two years, Yemen or what is known as the Arabia Felix, sleeps on the sound of airstrikes launched by the fighters of aggression from the air, and awaken on the whizzing of rockets fired from the warships that occupied the sea, and between this and that, minarets and historic cities and sites are collapsed in addition to dozens of government and private facilities, accompanied by the screams of children, women and the elderly whose scattered organs are gathered from under the rubble, as if it is only a movie scene.

A few days left for the end of the second year and entering the third year of this brutal aggression, under which Yemen is suffering an external barbaric military aggression by seventeen countries led by Saudi Arabia.

With a military and logistic support of the USA, this aggression has targeted every public or private establishment, historic city, archaeological site, touristic facility, bridge, public market, wedding, funeral hall… etc.

A stab in the waist:

The land, sea and air siege announced by the Saudi led- coalition since the beginning of the aggression against Yemen in March 2015, is approaching its third year. This has affected the Ministry of Tourism and Yemen Tourism Promotion Board (YTP), preventing them of participating in international tourism exhibitions, where they have been before participating annually in more than thirteen international exhibitions, in which hundreds of countries and thousands of Arabian, Asian and European tourism agencies were participating to promote their culture, history, environment, and touristic product. This aggression was a stab in the waist of the tourism sector in Yemen with a loss of more than $ 6.379 billion.

The ugly face of the aggression:

From the first moment, Ministry of Tourism and Yemen of Tourism Promotion Board (YTPB), have formeda team to monitor and record the crimes of the Saudi-American aggression in the tourism sector, condemning all the aggression's crimesin targeting historic cities, sites, monuments and touristic facilities.And seeking to reveal the mask about the ugly face of aggression, they held several symposiums, events and participations, in addition to local and international protests. There were also a symposium entitled "The Effects of Aggression on the Tourism Sector", an event entitled "Tourism Struggle Against Aggression", a protest in the old city of Sana'a, two demonstrations in front of the UN office and a protest in the historical city of ShibamKawkaban,in addition to the publication of a newspaper in Arabic and English.Meanwhile, the aggression forces continued to target Yemen's identity, history, and its tourism facilities. The aggression's possession of a large media machine enabled it to falsify the facts and confuse the world'speoples, countries and international tourism and heritage organizations.

Despite all that, the Ministry of Tourism and YTPB did not give upbut sought to find any opportunity ofinternationalparticipation tosend their message abroad transmitting the truth in video and audio. So, they have organized several events including an event in Algeria, in addition to participating in the 10th Tehran International Tourism Fair 2017 which was held during the period 6-9 February. This exhibition is one of the most important international tourism exhibitions, in which Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Maldives, Vietnam, China, South Korea, France, Oman, Italy, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Germany, Spain, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Indiawere among the participating countries in this exhibition, in addition to more than 3,000 thousand tourism companies from all over the world.

Targeting attempt:

During the participation in the exhibition, discussions took place with the media, tourism activists and participating countries to strengthen the relations between Yemen and the target countries.There held direct meetings with various media outlets.The regional and international media were briefed on the reality of the tourism situation in Yemen and the efforts to convey the reality of what tourism and archeological sectors have suffered by the aggression.Also, the Yemeni tourism product has been promoted in an attempt to target the biggest segment of tourism exporting companies to ensure that Yemen is being included as a tourism destination within the plannedtourism program of each country, providing information and data to participants supporting them with different promotional materials and publications about Yemen in various languages.

In addition, hundreds of promotional publications were distributed among them leaflets, books and tourism magazines, as well as a documentary film showing the magnitude of the damage and losses caused by the forces of Saudi-American coalition aggression on tourism sector in Yemen.

At the same time, the Yemeni booth in the exhibition was attended by visitors from different nationalities like Italians, Turks, Azerbaijanis, Russians, Japanese, Koreans, Spaniards, Chinese, Indians, Moroccans, Syrians, Egyptians and others, to whom the Yemeni coffee was servedand many books, brochures and pamphlets of the Yemeni tourism were distributed. The visitors have expressed their happiness to visit the booth of Yemen which is a country full of cultural, historical and touristic heritage.

Also, the Yemeni participating delegation in Tehran exhibition has held several meetings with various media outlets that covered the exhibition's event, which highlighted Yemen and the aggression to which it is exposed, and presented a detailed explanation to the visitors about the historic, touristic and cultural position of Yemen, in addition to informing them about the systematic targeting of Yemeni history and tourism by the forces of the Saudi-American coalition aggression, which was highly condemned by the visitors.It is worth mentioning that the Yemen booth in Tehran Tourism exhibition was visited by hundreds of participating tourism companies in the exhibition from different countries of the world.