Yemen seeks to refurbish its image

SANA'A // Yemen - considered the cradle of Arab civilisation - is trying to repair its image overseas after a spate of kidnappings and bomb attacks in its troubled north sparked travel warnings by many western countries.

A tourism campaign will kick off in European countries next month, including Britain, Italy, Germany and France, said Ahmed al Bail, the executive director of the ministry of tourism promotion board. Yemen has a range of experiences on offer, including cultural, adventure and ecotourism adventures. Its capital, Sana'a, is a designated Unesco world heritage site for its centuries old buildings and a history that dates back more than two and a half millennia. Yemen has the largest number of UN cultural and heritage sites in the Arabian peninsula.

"We try to promote Yemen's rich and unique traditional architecture, stunning mountains and unspoilt beaches. We are trying to tell them. Yemen is still an undiscovered pearl," said Mr Bail. The country faces several challenges, not least its reputation as a haven for al Qa'eda supporters and a long-running civil war in the north. The Yemen Soldiers Brigades, an al Qa'eda-linked group, claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack in July that killed two people and injured 18 at a police complex in eastern Hadhramaut province.

The group had earlier said it was behind other attacks, including the killing of two Belgian tourists in Hadhramaut in January and the July 2007 attack on a tourist convoy in the central province of Marib that killed eight Spanish tourists. Its online magazine, Sada al Malahim, in July this year urged jihadists to kidnap western tourists to press for the release of jailed militants. Subsequently, some European countries including Britain, Italy, Germany and most recently France, issued travel warnings to Yemen, but Mr Bail dismissed these as an "over-exaggeration" to the situation.

"There are only specific areas where travel is restricted, not the whole country," he said. "It surprises me, for instance, to see that Germany warns against travel to Yemen but not to Afghanistan, Somalia or Iraq. This is completely unfair," he said. Hadhramaut, as well as Marib and al Jawf in the central north, and Shabwa and Abyan in the south are accessible to tourists only with security escorts.

Mr Bail said they were now in contact with some marketing and public relations companies in Europe to start the campaign, but travel warnings were holding them back. "If they say 'do not go to Yemen', they are then achieving the goals of the terrorists. Terrorist incidents that have taken place in Yemen are isolated and can take place in Spain or London and anywhere in the world." Yemen, which has historically been one of the lowest earners of tourism revenue in the Middle East and North Africa region, was predicted to generate US$44 billion (Dh160.6bn) from tourism by 2020, in a report released in June by Fast Future, a UK-based tourism consultancy. By 2015, the tourism ministry, according to Mr Bail, aims to attract one million tourists.

However, the attacks and kidnappings and subsequent travel warnings have dented the country's earning potential. According to the ministry's statistics, there was a slight drop in the number of tourists in 2007 to 379,390 from 382,332 in 2006. Yemen earned $424 million last year in tourism revenue, but Mr Bail said a hoped for 10 per cent growth set for 2008 would have to be reviewed after the warnings.

"Following these travel warnings, many tourists groups from these European countries want to come to Yemen but insurance companies refuse to give travel insurance while others ask for higher rate for insurance. People are afraid of being kidnapped by militants groups and thus we miss out on visitors' cash," he said. It is not only attacks by al Qa'eda that have damaged a fledgling tourism industry. Local tribesmen also have seen tourists as way to leverage power. Over 200 abductions were reported countrywide between 1993 and 2000, according to government figures. Between Nov 2005 and Jan 2006, 14 European tourists were kidnapped. The last kidnapping case took place in May, when two Japanese tourists were taken hostage by tribesmen in Marib, and blackmailed the government into releasing some of their jailed relatives.

Most hostages have been freed unharmed, but in 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in crossfire and in 1998 four westerners were killed during a botched army attempt to free them from militants who had seized 16 tourists. "Every incident, whether it is kidnapping or militants attacks taking place in the country, affects us and of course, with variation in the scale of the impact," said Abu Bakr Fada'ak, the owner of Qana'a Tourist complex in Shabwa province, a tourist hot spot.

"Following the Spanish tourist attacks, we have seen a 30 per cent drop. In the past three months, we have received three to four people [a night] compared to 60 per night in December last year," he said. Mr Fada'ak said the government was not doing enough to promote tourism. "Yemen can be an interesting tourist destination for millions of people. However, the government lacks good marketing plans. It needs to invest more on infrastructure and work to improve the security situation," he said.

Mr Bail said his ministry was holding meetings with government agencies and diplomatic missions to discuss the travel warnings and their impact on tourism. "We are trying to convince these European countries to at least mitigate their warnings so as to run our campaigns in Europe," Mr Bail said. "We can close some areas but not the whole country." He said his ministry was trying to improve tourism infrastructure by building roads to tourist sites as well as setting up guest houses in different parts of the country. Despite the warnings, tourists are still lured by the unique architecture and tradition of Yemen, especially to the old city of Sana'a with its gingerbread-looking houses and bustling markets. "This is completely different from Europe and many other places," said Kate Marks, an Australian tourist, walking around the old city. "The architecture is unique and can never be found anywhere in the world. This is why I decided to come to Yemen. I feel safe here in Sana'a and people meet you with a friendly smile and hello." Ms Marks said she had heard about the security problems in areas like Marib and Shabwa and so had decided not to travel there. @email:malqadhi@thenational.ae