Yemen: of tourism and terrorism

Published November 27th, 2010 - 08:04 GMT

Yemen is beautiful, but is it really safe?

"A decade ago, dozens of visitors teemed the streets around places like Bab al-Yemen and Souk al-Milh, watching Yemeni women make jambia belts and other handicrafts. Now, over the past couple of years, the lack of visitors and slow trickle of tourists is having an upsetting impact on Yemenis, and exacerbating the country’s prolonged postponement of development. Those who built their lives around the tourism industry have been in an escalating financial rut as Yemen’s security situation deteriorates and drives foreign tourists and investors away".

Yemen’s tourism recession hurts local businesses

In a fascinating piece Steven Teran from Yemen today examines the reluctance of foreigners to holiday in Yemen, largely due to negative portrayals of the country in the media, and due to its increasing reputation as a haven for terrorists. This is a shame: the piece describes how the country hosts some of the worlds most unique and oldest historical landmarks. Despite this the security situation has led the tourism industry there to loosing over a billion dollars a year for the last 10 years.