After the Arab boycott of Syria, the UAE was the first to initiate the restoration of relations with Syria.
In January 2018, the UAE announced the reopening of its embassy in Damascus, and since then, the issue has been accelerating. We have seen the UAE Foreign Minister visit Damascus and the Syrian President visit Abu Dhabi in March 2022, leading to another visit by Assad to the UAE in March 2023. This political rapprochement was reflected in the heart of the Arabian Travel Market exhibition in Dubai.
Alongside the Gulf and Arab countries' pavilions at the exhibition, a pavilion for Syria was organized directly by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism. Syria's goal in participating in the exhibition, directly and explicitly, was to regain tourism income from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and even from other Arab countries. On this basis, Syrian Deputy Minister of Tourism Nidal Mashafej said that the Ministry of Tourism would facilitate visa issuance by launching a website soon. The presence of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism was not the only thing that caught people's attention. Even the Syrian airline, Cham Wings, which operates flights to a number of Arab countries, including the UAE, had its own pavilion at the exhibition. Syria's return to conferences, exhibitions, and events seems to have preceded its return to the Arab League. Will Damascus succeed in attracting Arab tourists back to its country through its rapprochement with the UAE and its presence at the exhibition?