ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Officials and business owners in the Kurdistan Region are worried about the impact of last month’s suicide bombing on tourism.
“I had 40 to 45 visitors before the explosion at the intelligence headquarters, but now I have only 20 to 25 visitors a day,” said Saa’ed Ibrahim, owner of the Zaituna Hotel in Erbil.
He said he was unhappy that authorities have tightened border restrictions with the rest of Iraq since the September 29 attack on the headquarters of the Asayish security services in Erbil, which killed six assailants and seven guards and wounded dozens of others. The attack was claimed by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq.
“Intensifying checkpoints and not letting most of the Iraqi tourists enter Kurdistan is not a solution; they could just expand checkpoints so larger number of Arabs could enter at one time,” Ibrahim said.
Authorities have said that a vehicle used in the attack had entered the Kurdistan Region through the main Mosul-Erbil checkpoint.
Mewlewi Jabar, head of Kurdistan’s Tourism Board, said that visitors from the rest of Iraq – which continues to writhe in violence – will face disadvantages trying to enter the Kurdistan Region, which despite the rare attack remains the only safe part of Iraq. The latest attack was the first in the enclave since a 2007 assault on the same target.
“We would rather have safety than enormous tourism income,” Jabar said. “We have intensive plans to develop tourism in Kurdistan and we will mostly be interested in visitors from the West and from Arab countries other than only Iraq.”
The attack scared visitors, but the panic soon faded after things returned to normal.
John Laurence, an Austrian tourist traveling in Kurdistan, said: ”I heard of the explosion before I came to Kurdistan but the stability of the region made me not cancel my trip.”
“Although we were fearful about Erbil, friends assured us that the region is safe enough to visit,” said Ida Coushi, an Albanian visitor patiently waiting for a room at an Erbil hotel.
Nearly 2.2 million tourists from around the world visited Kurdistan in 2012, and roughly 1.2 million arrived during the first six months of this year, according to official figures.
Airlines from Europe and the Gulf have reported record passenger growth on flights to Erbil.
