Kurdistan Looks for a Slice of Tourism from Europe

BARCELONA, Spain – Despite limited infrastructure – but a wealth of history that includes the world’s oldest inhabited city – the Kurdistan Region is ready to take up the challenge of attracting more travelers from Europe, with an eye to cashing in on revenues from tourism.

For the first time, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is taking part in the January 16-19 “Ferien-Messe-Wien” in Vienna, Austria’s largest annual tourism exhibition, where the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq is billed as a wonderful, adventurous and exciting destination.

“Given that the Kurdistan Region is not very well known in Austria, our aim is not only to inform visitors about the region, but to overall attract people looking to embark on individual and adventurous travelling,” said KRG representative in Austria, Dr. Mustafa Ramazan.

“One of the main reasons to participate this year was also the fact that Erbil has been chosen the Tourism Capital of the Arab World in 2014,” he told Rudaw.

The Kurdish capital, Erbil, is believed to be the world’s longest continuously inhabited city, dating back some 8,000 years. Kurdistan has a rich heritage of 3,000 known archaeological sites.

Ramazan said he hopes that attending the fair, which attracted some 148,000 visitors last year, will promote Kurdistan’s “diverse, fascinating and unique history  and landscape.”

The number of tourists visiting the Kurdistan Region has risen by 30 percent and among them are more Europeans and Americans, according to data from the Kurdistan Board of Tourism, which wants to attract more foreign tourists by offering greater facilities to tourism companies.

Until now, most tourists visiting Kurdistan come from other parts of Iraq and from Iran.

According to the manager of the Kurdistan Association of Tourist Companies, Rebwar Azad, only five foreign travel agencies from Europe, the United States and the Middle East organize tours to the Kurdistan Region. Only 1,000 tourists come annually from those parts of the world, he added.

Daniel Gonzalez, a Spaniard who accompanied the first group of tourists from Barcelona to Kurdistan early this year, said the visit attracted only the more adventurous travelers.

“We left for Erbil with 20 people mostly in their 50s, who had a lot of experience in traveling and a lot of cultural, political and social interests,” said Gonzalez, who works with the Baalbech Sama Tours company in Lebanon and Barcelona’s Orixa travel agency.

“Average people don’t travel to these types of places,” Gonzalez told Rudaw.

 “Tourism in cities and resorts is very high class. Kurds or Iranians who mostly are the ones traveling in Kurdistan don’t visit the mountain sites, but Europeans like to travel around the region and we discovered that roads are terrible. Nevertheless, Europeans like the adventure,” he said.

Ramazan stressed that “investment in infrastructure is high and also the international interest in the Region as an economical destination continues to grow.” He noted that several luxury hotels like Marriott and Sheraton are under construction in Kurdistan.

“From year-to-year, the number of commercial sites grows and the public transportation system improves as well. These developments highlight the strong security situation of the Kurdistan Region, as well as its political and economic stability,” Ramadan added.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, noted that the Spanish tourists had “felt very secure. There are many police controls all over the country.”

Kurdistan remains an anomaly for its security, stability and economic boom, as the rest of Iraq writhes in an unending cycle of violence and devastation. 

However, Gonzalez said there was a lot of room for improvement, if Kurdish authorities are indeed serious about promoting mass tourism.

Tourist and historical “sites are not properly marked, and people don’t know what they are looking at,” he said.  There is no travel guide for Kurdistan, he lamented.

This last issue has recently improved for English-speaking visitors: Last year eBiz Guides published a book about Kurdistan. Also, Dutch writer and photographer Yvonne van der Bijl will soon publish her travel guidebook for visitors, compiled after two years of traveling in the region Gonzalez recalled that the group of Spanish tourists was received at the airport in Erbil by officials from the Ministry of Tourism.

“Kurdistan is very interested in promoting European tourism,” he said.

Kurdistan  offers entry visas at the airport to European nationals – among others -- and soon will offer the same to some of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states.

With the help of foreign advisers, the KRG has drawn a strategic plan for 2013-2025, aimed at attracting an ambitious seven million tourists and $2.17 billion in revenues from the tourist industry.