ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The flow of tourists visiting the Kurdistan Region during the three days of Eid holiday this year boosted sales of Kurdish domestic products 50 percent compared to 2015. "Our market is better this year compared to the last year due to an increase in the number of tourists into Kurdistan," Salar Sadiq, a Kurdish shop owner selling domestic products, told Rudaw. "If I sold my products for 500,000 IQD [Iraqi dinar, around $420] last year, this year my sale has reached 1,000,000 IQD [$840] in a day for sure," Sadiq explained. Unlike the last two religious holidays, a large number of tourists from the center and south of Iraq came to the Region for Eid al-Fitr, and each family is estimated to have spent around $100 on Kurdish domestic products. "We have come here to buy Kurdish sweets and snacks. They are very good and cheap products and just to buy these products we have spent 200,000 IQD [around $150]," Iniam Abdullatif, an Iraqi tourist, told Rudaw. Shaqlawa resort, which lies 51 km to the northeast of Erbil, is a place known for original Kurdish snacks and attracts many tourists. "First we visited Shaqlawa and Pirmam. We bought snacks and Kurdish products and each family among us has spent [$350 to $500]," a man who identified himself as Abu Eli told Rudaw. According to data from the Kurdistan Region Tourism Board, in 2015 as the Region went through severe economic crises and internal political turmoil, just 30,000 tourists chose to come to Kurdish destinations. This year, that same number, 30,000, visited Duhok Province alone. The board earlier this week announced that during Ramadan holidays at least 108,000 tourists visited the Kurdistan Region this year, a significant rise from previous years’ declining numbers.
