Damascus: The Ministry of Tourism revealed that more than two million foreigners visited Syria during the current year, which means an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year. There were 1,750,000 visitors from Arab countries and 250,000 from other foreign nationalities, particularly Russia, Pakistan, Iran and India, the ministry indicated in its annual report. The Ministry is satisfied with these figures taking into account the many challenges, in particular the war in Gaza and the Israeli attacks that put the international airports in Damascus and Aleppo out of service. The ministry also revealed that state-owned hotels achieved a 120 percent increase in profits, and that there is growing Arab interest in bilateral tourism cooperation with Syria. The Ministry announced that this year licenses were granted to 62 tourist facilities in accordance with law 23, of which 52 with a capacity of six thousand chairs and 556 beds. The ministry clarified that the number of students for the 2022-2023 a cademic year in schools, hotel institutes and the tourism and hotel training center amounted to 5,500 students. Source: Syrian Arab News Agency