SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The tourism sector in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region has grown faster than expected, with 15,000 tourist facilities completed before time, officials said.
The three-province enclave in northern Iraq is populated by ethnic Kurds who have taken advantage of the autonomy granted to them following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, and transformed their region into an oasis of relative tranquility and booming economic growth.
“In 2001 we expected to have 50,000 tourist facilities finished by 2015, but we have already achieved that goal,” said Mawlawi Jabbar, the head of the Kurdistan Tourism Council (KTC).
“We will deliver much more than we have promised,” he enthused.
Erbil, the regional capital, has been transformed into a magnet for visitors, officials said. More hotels and restaurants have been built, and more outsiders visit the city each year, they added.
Rebaz Qasim, the press officer at Erbil’s Tourism Directorate, said that over the past three months 10 hotels, three motels, and nine tourist restaurants have opened in the capital. “This is because we are constantly encouraging the growth of tourism-related industries,” he said.
He added that his office is currently working with Swiss and Lebanese companies to draw up a new tourism master plan for Erbil, where an ancient Citadel in the heart of the capital, claimed to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited town, is the top tourist attraction.
Qasim said that the plan envisages 18 tourism-related projects, ranging from restaurants to recreational areas, adventure playgrounds, restrooms and new roads.
Jabbar said the plan also considers the needs of low-income local visitors, who flock to Erbil in large numbers during the March 21 Kurdish New Year, many sleeping in the parks. Modestly-priced tourist tents to house these visitors are part of the plan, he added.
According to official statistics, the three Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok provinces of the Kurdistan Region house 565 hotels, about a quarter of them in Erbil, with several boasting five-star luxury.
The KTC said that in the first quarter of this year, tourism revenues totaled 60 billion Iraqi dinars (about $52 million). “The goal is to have the tourism sector generate $1 billion dollars annually, by 2015,” said KTC spokesman, Nadir Rusti.
But tourism-sector experts say that greater development in Sulaimani province is needed to achieve the KTC targets.
