Yemen tourism hopeful for 2009
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Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, may not be first on the list of most people’s holiday destinations, but the country is confident that 2009 will boost its tourism ambitions.
Next year, the number of UK tour operators offering travel to Yemen looks set to triple, and Yemeni operators will be hosting a series of study tours in January and February. Other European tour operators from Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe are also keen to develop programmes and are not restricted by their governments’ official travel advisories.
Tour operators are reportedly interested in a number of opportunities, typically involving 10- or 11-night itineraries that includes 2 or 3 nights in Old City of Sana’a, which has more than 6,000 houses dating from before the 11th Century, followed by visits to two or three other gateway destinations, such as Aden, which is full of British colonial history, Shibam, the “Manhattan of the Desert” with its 16th Century mud-brick skyscrapers, and Zabid, which is an archaeologist’s paradise. Add-on options would include 7 nights on Socotra, Yemen’s fourth and most recent UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is known as the “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean”, or dive sites along the mainland or on one of the country’s more than 200 islands.
Yemen’s Minister of Tourism, HE Nabil Al-Faqih, said he was delighted with the response from British tour operators. Meanwhile the Yemen Tourism Promotion Board’s UK representative, Benjamin Carey, added; “To see so few tourists in such an incredibly beautiful, welcoming and unique country was surprising. I
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