DAMASCUS, Syria -- I knew very little about Syria when I received the invitation to be part of the "first North America press delegation" to the country's annual Silk Road Festival.

But it seems that ignorance about this place is widespread in the U.S., judging by the questions -- and eyebrows -- the trip raised among many friends.

"Where is Syria?" one asked.

"Do you really work for the CIA?" another wondered.

Most, however, just warned: "Be careful."

To many Americans, this hub of the Middle East, which shares borders with Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, has become synonymous with terrorism.

But it is also rich in history. A key intersection on the historical Silk Road that for centuries tied Europe and Asia with bonds of commerce, Syria boasts Crusaders' castles, Roman ruins and countless sites and relics considered sacred in Christianity and Islam.

Damascus, which is now majority Muslim, is considered the cradle of Christianity and is among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. The residents of the Syrian village of Maloula still speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.

With all that historical significance, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Syria was recently ranked fifth among the world's top 10 tourism destinations by the British travel magazine Wanderlust.

Obviously, that was not a poll of Americans, who in most recent years have likely only heard the country mentioned as part of what former President George W. Bush's U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, described as "beyond the axis of evil."

Bush imposed economic sanctions on Syria because of its alleged ties to terrorism. Since 1979, the U.S. has designated it a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Since President Obama took office, Syria has made efforts to improve its image both within the U.S. government and with the American people.

The Syrian government recently sent an envoy to Washington for talks, and this fall it invited, for the first time, a group of North American travel journalists to the Silk Road Festival it began eight years ago as part of a concerted effort to improve tourism.

"This is one of the countries where the difference between perception and reality is very stark," said Abdullah Dardari, deputy prime minister for economic development. "We would love to see Americans coming to Syria and seeing the country and going home to tell more people about it."

There are many things Americans don't know about Syria, Dardari said. "For example, do Americans really know that Syria is the cradle of Christianity? Do they know what it means to be on the Road to Damascus? Do they know they can actually go see the Road to Damascus and walk on it?"

A growing tourist destination

Though Syria has long been a favorite destination of intrepid travelers, it wasn't until about eight years ago that the country began an aggressive push to increase tourism, and until 2007, the primary target of that push was the Arab world.

Although things move slowly here, numbers from the Syrian Ministry of Tourism seem to indicate it is working.

Syria had 5.4 million visitors last year, and Tourism Minister Saadallah Alqalah said the country expects to exceed 6 million this year. That growth rate, about 10%, is down from the 15% the country had been averaging in recent years, a drop he attributed to the global economic crisis.

Still, he said, going forward, Syria expects the number of tourists to double every five years.

Two years ago, the country expanded its marketing efforts beyond the Middle East with a campaign to attract Europeans. Since then, Alqalah said, it has seen a 22% jump in European tourism.

This year, he said, 400,000 Europeans will visit the country, and he expects that number to double every three years, exceeding 1 million by 2014.

Currently, 61% of Syria's tourists are from Arab countries and 17% are Syrian expatriates, while only 22% are non-Arab visitors.

Americans still represent just a tiny part of that non-Arab group, totaling about 80,000 a year. But Alqalah said that number is increasing by about 15% a year.

Julian Crane, director of marketing at the Four Seasons Damascus, said he is definitely seeing an increase in North American visitors.

"Syria has not necessarily had the best of publicity in the past," Crane said. "But I think a lot of things have changed, and people's perceptions about the rest of the world, and the Middle East in particular, are changing very, very quickly.

"The first question I usually get from North American travelers is, 'Do they welcome Americans?' Of course they do. The Syrians welcome everyone."

Indeed, everywhere you go in the country, shopkeepers, hoteliers and people on the street echo what appears to be a favorite English phrase here: "You are welcome."

An industry coming of age

Despite the apparent success of the tourism ministry's campaign, the industry is in many ways still in its infancy.

For starters, Alqalah admits, the country doesn't have nearly enough hotels. It also needs more airlift and would like to have a national airline, he said. What's more, the country lacks trained service workers.

It is working on all those issues. The government has opened training centers to prepare workers for the service industries, and in 2010, Alqalah said, the government will be launching a "national project for tourist quality."

"We want to bring things up to international standards," Alqalah said. "To elevate the level of service ... to the international benchmarks."

New hotels are also being built. Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which already has three Sheratons and a LeMeridien in Syria, is developing a Four Points by Sheraton in Tartus, a key port city.

"In addition to Tartus, we see Damascus as an attractive market and would like more hotels there," said Starwood spokesman Brad Minor. "It is a key market now, and looking ahead, we anticipate it can sustain long-term growth."

InterContinental Hotels is developing both an InterContinental hotel and a Holiday Inn in Damascus.

But the wheels of progress turn slowly in Syria.

"This is not Dubai," Crane said, noting that it took about eight years to build the Four Seasons.

A lack of infrastructure, coupled with a lack of understanding of what kinds of services and accommodations discerning Western travelers expect, was apparent all through our trip, which basically followed the type of mid-scale group tour package Syria is marketing to European travelers.

The average stay for tourists is nine nights, and the average expenditure is $700 "per one tourist tour," Alqalah said.

I spent my first night at the Dedeman Damascus, a former LeMeridien that is now part of the Turkish Dedeman chain. My room reminded me of a Sheraton that had missed a few upgrades. (On my return there for my final night, I was put on a renovated floor with much nicer furniture and wood floors, although it was still far from the five-star level Dedeman claims for it.)

Half of the large hotel overlooks the pool, where a very loud band played until 2 a.m. Apparently that is a weekly event, which takes place without regard for how disruptive it is to guests.

The second night we stayed at another Dedeman, in Palmyra, where the rooms were very basic. The staff was downright unfriendly, which was a dramatic contrast to the attitudes of the general public in Syria.

The nicest hotel we stayed in was the Sheraton in Aleppo. It offered accommodations one would expect from an overseas Sheraton, which have traditionally been a level above U.S. Sheratons.

The bus we traveled on throughout the country was run-down, the seats dirty, some broken. The guide's descriptions were pretty sorry, and the bus driver frequently got lost.

Most of the meals were the same: hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and plates of meat and rice, all served in restaurants designed to feed large groups. Still, the food was quite good and was fresh, although a few people did get sick, as usually happens in any Third World country.

However, as one Brit I met on the tour put it, "When you are visiting such phenomenal sites, who cares where you are staying?"

Not every traveler would agree, but another side of Syrian tourism is emerging for the more discerning guest. Three years ago, Four Seasons opened its hotel in Damascus. In addition to the InterContinental, a Grand Kempinski is under development.

And there is a growing number of small but quite luxurious boutique properties in Old Damascus and other historical neighborhoods. On our final night we had dinner at the Art House, a 400-year-old mill that has been transformed into an art gallery and spa with 10 guestrooms.

Students and jet-setters

"The luxury traveler is very much looking at Syria because it is a market that has been closed for decades," Crane said. "In the two-and-a-half years that I have been here, I've seen significant change."

Crane said emerging markets tend to move from the intrepid traveler to the luxury traveler to the private jet traveler.

"We are starting to see more and more inquiries out of North America with regard to potential private jet programs," he said.

High-end academic tour operators, which have ignored the market for more than a decade, are again turning their attention to Syria, and they are finding a lot of interest.

Erin Sorensen with Academic Arrangements Abroad in New York is arranging two group trips to Syria this year for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The trips, priced at $6,995 per person before airfare, include high-end hotels, starting and ending at the Four Seasons, and employ the best tour operators available. They tend to hit both the most popular and a few more obscure archaeological sites.

"We and the museum are always looking for new destinations, new places to go that would be of interest," Sorensen said. "They recently had an exhibition, 'Beyond Babylon,' which includes pieces from Syria as well as other countries, so it was kind of feeding off that and working with the curator that had been responsible for that.

"People felt it was safe enough to travel there, and we hadn't been, so it was kind of unexplored territory. You can only go to Italy so many times."

Sorensen said the initial offering was so popular, they added a second trip.

Safety concerns

Security, it seems, is top of mind when most North Americans think about Syria.

I certainly never felt threatened. One person on our bus trip had her wallet snatched from her purse. Another, however, found true Syrian hospitality when she got separated from the group and a young man helped her get a taxi, escorted her back to the hotel and then refused to let her even pay the cab fare.

As with most police states, actual crime is quite low, and the Syrian people seem sincere in welcoming Westerners, sanctions or no sanctions.

And the Syrian government, although interspersing its welcoming message with statements about how hard it will be to improve relations when sanctions remain in place, seems intent on mending fences with the U.S.

"We can see clearly that the approach, the language seems to be different" with the Obama administration, Dardari said. "There is now a willingness to talk, a willingness to listen. This is good. Syria wants good relations with all countries, including the United States."

Having U.S. writers present for the Silk Road Festival was a good first step, he said.

"We hope to be able to transmit who we are, what we are ... the warmth we have for foreigners," Dardari said. "This country is really not in the 'axis of evil.' Even in the worst of times of relations between the United States and Syria, Americans came to Syria. It's a question of the administration, it's not a question of the people."