Amid the impediments to developing religious tourism, academic Ahmad Salal, who is an employee at the secretariat of Imam Hamza Shrine in Babil, told Al-Monitor, “The lack of security stability is the biggest obstacle to making religious sites in Iraq as profitable as they are in Saudi Arabia.”
He added, “Tourism is the first industry that is suffering from the deteriorating security situation due to the war on terrorism.”
Indeed, even the relatively calm regions like Karbala are not permanently secure. On Aug. 29, an attack on Ayn al-Tamr town, located 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) west of the provincial capital city of Karbala, claimed 15 lives, and the security apparatus described the incident as a "terrorist attack."
The low-quality medical services constitute another spoke in the wheel of welcoming massive numbers of visitors. The Health Department in Karbala announced Jan. 3 that “projects are halted due to the financial crisis.”
Mecca’s authorities in Saudi Arabia spent around $9 billion on the Metro Mecca project and in 2016 inaugurated the distribution of electronic bracelets to pilgrims for travel on Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah metro line that transports pilgrims to four holy sites (previously they were transported on 12,000 buses); in addition, pilgrims' food and medical needs are met.
Visitors to Karbala suffered blocked roads, and the minister of transportation was forced to apologize for the bad transportation services. In addition, Karbala also suffers from bad electricity services, as is the case in other cities, including those that house religious shrines.
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