Over three million tourists visited Kurdistan Region in first half of 2022: Tourism board

 Over three million tourists have visited the Kurdistan Region in the first six months of 2022, the head of the Region’s tourism board told Rudaw on Thursday, adding that they expect the number to go higher ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha celebrations.

Considering its moderate temperature compared to the rest of the country, the Kurdistan Region hosts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year, mostly from Iraq’s southern and central provinces, around the time of holidays and traditional celebrations.

The Region has recorded over 3.1 million tourists since the start of the year, according to Amal Jalal, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s tourism board.

“We expect a large number of tourists to visit the Kurdistan Region’s tourist destinations [during Eid al-Adha], and we expect this year’s numbers to be larger than the previous year,” Jalal told Rudaw’s Nazanin Goran on Thursday.

Eid al-Adha is one of Islam’s two major holidays, marking the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah month on the Islamic Hijri calendar. Saturday is the first day of Eid al-Adha, often celebrated by followers of the religion for four consecutive days.

Jalal added that the lack of a banking system makes it difficult to calculate the Region’s tourism income, but the number is estimated to be around 250 to 300 dollars per tourist on average.

Tourism in the Kurdistan Region has been a booming sector in recent years, but it was hit by coronavirus-related measures in 2020.

The sector has once again boomed over the past year.

More than four million tourists visited the Kurdistan Region’s provinces in 2021, with the capital city of Erbil receiving the lion’s share.

Over 75,000 tourists from Iraq’s southern and central provinces visited Kurdistan Region’s capital city of Erbil to celebrate the start of the 2022 New Year.