The Syrian government defies belief:
In a letter to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly made public on Thursday, Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, said hotel occupancy had dropped from an average of 90 percent before the crisis began in March 2011 to less than 15 percent.
“In the cities and areas where there is tension, the impact of the crisis on the tourism sector has been totally disastrous: tourism activity has come to a complete halt and hotels have ceased to operate,” Ja’afari wrote in the letter dated May 7.
“All restaurants, roadside rest-stops, fairgrounds and other leisure facilities have also had to close,” he said.
