Syria's Ministry of Tourism says visits to Syria have jumped 25 percent so far this year.
Tourism Minister Beshr Yaziji says 530,000 people visited Syria during the first half of 2017, a 25 percent increase compared to the same period in 2016. His comments were reported on state media on Sunday.
Syria is home to a number of Muslim shrines and holy sites that draw religious pilgrims from across the Middle East. It is especially popular to Shiite worshippers visiting from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and farther afield.
Pro-government forces, backed by Russian air power, were able to reclaim a number of contested sites from the Syrian opposition in 2016, bringing relative calm to the country's two largest cities, Aleppo and Damascus, this year.
