Unification as the Republic of Yemen with a population approaching 12 million failed to reconcile two very different political and economic systems, resulting in civil war in 1994. It was not until the return to a more stable political situation that tourism could be seriously considered.
Tourism is in the very early stages of development in Yemen a good example of the involvement stage of the tourist area life cycle. Although a small amount of busi- ness travel took place during the colonial era in Aden, due to its role as a staging point on the British P&O shipping route to India, organized international tourism did not begin until the 1970s. Two international hotels were built in the 1980s, yet even at the beginning of the twenty-first century volumes of tourism remain small fluctuating considerably according to the levels of security in tribal areas where the writ of the central government does not always run and the political situation in Sana'a and Aden.