Nearby localities include Mashqita and Ayn al-Bayda to the west, al-Haffah to the southwest, Aramo and Slinfah 12 km to the south, and Kinsabba to the north.

As of the late 1990s, Salma nevertheless continued to lack any hotels or restaurants and its lodging capacity was considerably less than the nearby resort village of Slinfah, the major and long-established tourism destination of the mountains east of Latakia.

[5] The influx of Aleppine and Latakian homeowners in Salma has also opened networks of employment to many of the town's residents into those major cities.

[9] In November 2013, reporter Jonathan Steele claimed that the town was the Latakia governorate headquarters of both al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

[10] On 9 November 2015, it was reported that for over a month the Syrian Armed Forces had conducted several small military operations inside the Latakia Governorate in order to prepare for a much larger battle that was expected to take place in the rebel stronghold of Salma.