Tourism in Yemen

Traditionally, Yemen has been a tourism centre for centuries as it is in the middle of the trade routes of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. Tourism played a fundamental role in the region in global trade and has remained so until the 20th century. Afterwards, there has been a sharp decline in tourism since the 2011 Yemen Crisis. The rise of extremism caused fear in prospective foreign tourists to Yemen.[1] Yemen has four World Heritage Sites,[2] some of the sites have been attacked including historic old city of Sana'a.[3][4] In 2015 UNESCO declared its plan to protect the world heritage sites of Yemen.[5]

"It is evident that the destruction of their culture directly affects the identity, dignity and future of the Yemeni people, and moreover their ability to believe in the future"[5]

-Irina Bokova (Director-General of UNESCO)

  1. ^ "Travel and Tourism in Yemen". Euromonitor.com. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  2. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Yemen – UNESCO World Heritage Centre". Whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  3. ^ "Yemen: the Unesco heritage slowly being destroyed". The Daily Telegraph. 2015-06-16. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  4. ^ "World heritage sites attacked in Yemen's Sanaa". Al Jazeera English. 2015-06-12. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  5. ^ a b "United Nations News Centre – UNESCO launches plan to safeguard Yemen's cultural heritage sites". Un.org. 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-11-11.