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Tourists and investors to Iraq? Why not,
say Kurds
8.8.2007
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August 8, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- The
Ministry of Tourism has 417 employees and big plans:
"We need three or four times as many hotels as we
have now," says Nimrud Youkhana, the minister, "and
we need to get more airlines to fly here."
Tourism in Iraq? More hotels in a country whose name
evokes images of truck bombs and mayhem, kidnappings
and beheaded foreigners?
This is what an advertising campaign in the United
States called The Other Iraq, the three northern
provinces that blossomed into a quasi-independent
state in the 16 years since the U.S. placed a
protective umbrella -- the 'no-fly zone' -- over the
region to stop a genocidal anti-Kurdish campaign
waged by Saddam Hussein.
Administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG),
the provinces have largely escaped the violence that
has been tearing apart the rest of Iraq since the
U.S. invasion in 2003, toppled Saddam and uncorked
long-suppressed sectarian hostility.
"We have some way to go still," said Youkhana, "but
we plan to eventually hold annual folklore events
like the Jerash festival," a reference to the
Jordanian city which brings together performers from
all over the world each summer.
Customers the ministry wants to attract are Arabs
from the Gulf who appreciate mountain resorts in an
Alpine setting (and a relaxed attitude towards
alcohol) and Europeans in search of exotic
destinations and archaeological remains dating back
thousands of years.
Youkhana's plans, and the mere existence of a
Tourism Ministry, highlight a bullish view of
Kurdistan's future which is also evident in building
projects on a grand scale, from a 6,000-shop mall to
a string of U.S.-style gated communities with names
such as Dream City, Empire Villas and American
Village.
Near the airport, Naz City, a new complex of 14
high-rise apartment towers, is cabled for high-speed
Internet access.
New hotels under construction include one by the
German luxury chain Kempinski.
And rising in the shadow of Arbil's citadel, near
where Alexander the Great defeated King Darius of
Persia, the huge Nishtiman mall features Kurdistan's
first escalator -- a magnet for children who ride it
up and down in wide-eyed wonder.
There are no detailed figures on how much money has
been invested in Kurdistan since 2003, when the rest
of Iraq slipped into violence and the north remained
stable. The Board of Investment, a government agency
set up last summer, has approved more than $3.5
billion in development projects.
The Kurds' main argument to persuade foreigners to
visit and invest is security: there is no other
place in Iraq where a foreigner can shop in local
markets or walk the streets without fear of being
killed or kidnapped.
"I feel safer in Erbil or Sulaimaniyah than in
Camden, New Jersey," said Harry Schute, a retired
U.S. army colonel who served in Iraq and is now a
security adviser to Kurdistan regional government (KRG)
president Massoud Barzani.
"But people hear 'Iraq' and they think violence.
There's a lack of understanding that Baghdad and
Erbil are different worlds."
OWN FLAG, ARMY, BORDER PATROL
So different that the KRG has all the trappings of
an independent state -- its own flag, its own army,
its own border patrol, its own national anthem, its
own education system, even its own stamp inked into
the passports of visitors.
Turkey, Iran and Syria -- all of which have sizeable
Kurdish minorities they do not want to become
autonomous -- are viewing the KRG's progress with
considerable concern. They fear full independence
for Iraqi Kurdistan would set off a chain reaction
in the region.
The Iraqi Kurds' sense of tranquility was shattered
by two bombs in May -- a truck bomb outside the
regional government's Interior Ministry killed 15
people and wounded more than 100 and three days
later, a car bomb in the office of Barzani's
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) left 30 dead and
injured 50.
The government responded by stepping up security,
already tight, and virtually sealing the roads into
KRG-controlled territory to non-Kurds. Travelers
from outside the region are not allowed to pass
unless a Kurdish resident meets them in person and
"guarantees" their stay.
Despite the May bombs, Austrian Airlines, the only
European carrier with a regular service to Arbil,
added a flight to its schedule in July to bring
Vienna-Arbil connections to four a week. The flights
are usually packed.
"The bomb attacks did not dent business interest,"
said Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the London-based head
of the Kurdish Development Corporation (KDC). "In
fact, inquiries picked up after a few days."
They did not dent a booming business in luxury cars,
either. "Things are looking good," said Lezan
Shafeea, a sales manager at the sprawling Mercedes
dealership in Arbil. "We are selling more top-end
models, at $138,500 apiece, than mid-size cars."
These are cash-only transactions -- Kurdistan's
embryonic financial system has no provision for
consumer credit.
Obstacles to opening up Kurdistan to the world,
Kurdish officials say, include the travel advisories
governments issue to their citizens. The U.S. State
Department, for example, makes no distinction
between the Kurdish north and the rest of Iraq and
"continues to strongly warn" against travel there.
But other countries have taken Kurdistan off their
list of life-threatening destinations, according to
Falah Mustafa Bakir, the head of the KRG's Foreign
Relations Department -- the region's de facto
foreign minister.
"Denmark, Japan, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands
have all changed their advisories," he said.
Not even the rosiest optimist predicts a travel boom
soon to Kurdistan but a British company, Hinterland
Travel, led a group of adventurous tourists in their
50s and 60s on a package tour through the three
provinces administered by the KRG in May. Another is
scheduled for September.
"This is for people interested in archaeology and
history," said the company's owner, Geoff Hann, "and
who are not faint of heart."
Reuters
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