Lack of tourists in winter brings concerns to Choman district

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Owners of the resorts shut down their business in the Choman district, because of high-cost expenses, maintenance, and lack of tourists during Winter.

Most of the resorts in the tourism projects in Choman are either shut down or empty because of the lack of tourists during the Winter season.

Many of the resort owners claim that the expenses during Winter are high and need more maintenance compared to the other seasons.

“Because of the high cost of gas, we cannot open the project to tourists which is why our country's money goes abroad and tourists think about other countries,” Karwan Kamal, resort Owner, told Rudaw’s Baxtyar Qadir.

Since winter is coming, the majority of resort owners shut down their businesses beforehand knowing they will face losses that cannot be handled. 

The prominent tourist projects in the Kurdistan Region suffer to pay their daily expenses since there are not enough tourists during the colder seasons.

There are about 3,000 beds for winter tourists in the Choman district, and a number of tourism projects are under implementation. The government wants to work with the owners of tourism projects to try to attract more winter tourists.

“We want to convince companies and tourism groups to bring tourists from abroad and domestically,” Faisal Sadiq, Tourism Director of Soran said.

However, Winter might be the only season that is a huge issue when it comes to the tourism sector because tourism in the Kurdistan Region has been a booming sector in recent years.

Millions of tourists from the Iraqi central and southern provinces come to the Kurdistan Region annually. Over three million tourists visited the Region in the first half of this year, according to official figures.