Syrian Entrepreneurs Build First All-in-One Travel App for Visitors to Syria

Rami Kaiem, Feras Kaiem, Waseem Qudmani, and Kinan Madi built something Syria has never had before: a single app where a traveler can book a hotel, reserve a table, arrange transport, and pay with a Visa card, all without switching platforms or hunting for a local payment workaround.

Their company, 121 Living, a UAE-based startup founded by the four Syrian entrepreneurs, launched My Syria this year under the patronage of Syria’s Minister of Tourism, Mazen Al-Salhani. The Ministry of Tourism provided strategic support and supervision throughout development. The result is what the company describes as Syria’s first integrated tourism super app, and it arrives at a moment when the country’s travel sector is moving fast.

Visitor arrivals reached 3.52 million in the first half of 2026, up from 1.67 million during the same period in 2025. That is 111 percent growth in twelve months, drawing in Syrian expatriates, regional visitors, and international tourists alike. For anyone trying to navigate hotels, restaurants, and attractions across a country rebuilding its hospitality infrastructure, the practical friction has been real.

My Syria is designed to reduce that friction. The platform consolidates eight services into one mobile gateway: hotel bookings, restaurant reservations, transportation, tourist attractions, curated experiences, and food delivery. What would otherwise mean juggling multiple apps and providers now fits inside a single application. The company has announced plans to expand to more than 40 verified tourism and hospitality providers across Syria as the service matures.

The payment infrastructure is where the app breaks new ground most sharply. My Syria is the first platform in Syria to support cross-border digital payments through Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. For an international visitor accustomed to tapping a phone at checkout, that matters. For local businesses, it opens access to a customer base that previously had no easy way to pay them.

Meanwhile, the launch reflects a deliberate alignment between government priorities and private-sector ambition. Minister Al-Salhani said at the launch that digital transformation is a Ministry priority because it strengthens competitiveness and creates an investment-ready tourism sector. He described the government’s role as building conditions that allow private companies to innovate and improve visitor experiences, and he extended an open invitation to technology companies, globally, regionally, and locally, to explore opportunities in Syria’s digital transformation across tourism and the broader economy.

121 Living frames My Syria as a first phase, not a finished product. Additional services and expanded geographic coverage across Syria are planned for subsequent phases. Whether the platform can scale quickly enough to match the pace of the sector’s growth is the question the next twelve months will answer.