The latest figures released by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism show the number of tourists visiting the country in 2009 was up 12 per cent on 2008.
According to records from the Ministry of Interior 16 per cent of the tourists were Europeans while 32 per cent came from Turkey.
In total just over six million visitors arrived in Syria in 2009 in comparison with 5.4 million in 2008.
Syrian expatriates returning home to visit accounted for around 1.1 million.
The ministry put the increase in numbers down to its promotional campaigns over the last two years.
According to estimates the number of the tourists who came from the Arab Gulf States increased by 18 per cent in 2009 to 764,309 and total Arab tourists were up by eight per cent to 3,590,273.
European visitors increased to 772,031 a leap of 25 per cent on the previous year coming from Italy, France, England, Germany, Spain, Russia, Holland and Sweden.
The total number of foreign tourists reached 1,436,679 an increase of 24 per cent on 2008’s 1,160,433.