Erbil’s Big Challenge: Tourists vs. Locals

When Erbil won the title at a meeting of ministers of tourism from around the Middle East, it beat out other major cities like Beirut in Lebanon and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to do so. A number of conditions had to be met and these included hotels and accommodation for visitors, stable security conditions, a mild climate, decent roads and infrastructure and the presence of cultural and historical sites for visitors. Erbil has all of these.

In fact National Geographic Magazine even picked Erbil as one of the best trips one could undertake in 2014.

Nonetheless as soon as the title was awarded, naysayers suggested that the city had only got the award because of the instability in other countries caused by the Arab Spring revolutions and the ensuing regime changes.

Around 80 different events and activities are being organised for 2014 and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan has allocated around US$20 million to the project. Erbil will also host a meeting of the Arab Tourism Ministers Council this year and that should help to better introduce Erbil to its neighbouring nations, says Hamza Hamed, the media and public relations director at Erbil's governor's office.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s’ Department of Tourism has also put aside money for the project, says department spokesperson Nadir Rosti, and they will also help businessmen who want to invest in tourism projects with loans.

Rosti says half of the planned projects will be started on this year while others may not be completed until later – it is all part of Iraqi Kurdistan’s strategic plan for tourism which looks ahead to 2025, he says.

But even Rosti acknowledges that Erbil had some challenges to overcome. Roads outside of the region’s major centres were poor and there were no tourist bus services, either in, or coming into, the region. There was a lack of visitor culture and there were no such things as tour guides.

Another problem was the fact that many non-Iraqis didn’t differentiate between the rest of Iraq and the comparatively safe region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraqi Kurdistan has its own military, legislature and parliament and has been attracting foreign investors for several years now; many international firms set up their head quarters in Erbil because it is far safer here than in the rest of Iraq. Still, as Rosti said, many outsiders don’t realise this. And a recent bomb attack in Erbil – the first in the region for about six years – hasn’t helped either.