Zakho receives thousands of tourists during Eid al-Adha

The Director of Tourism in Zakho District, Chia Amin, announced that 40,040 tourists visited the district during Eid al-Adha.

Amin announced that 40,040 tourists visited the tourism sites in the Zakho district during Eid al-Adha.

He continued that nearly 23,000 tourists entered through the Ibrahim Khalil crossing.

Amin explained that due to military operations between Turkey and PKK, about 60% of the tourist areas within Zakho are no longer safe for visitors.

Turkish military operations within Kurdistan Region

Turkey has carried out cross-border offensives of varying magnitude allegedly against the PKK for decades. 

However, in recent years, it's begun to establish more of a sustained presence in a growing number of bases and checkpoints dotting the mountains of the Kurdistan Region despite calls from Iraqi authorities to stop these actions. 

The PKK is an armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Thousands of acres of land have been burnt, and many villages have been evacuated due to Turkish bombings. Even civilian casualties have fallen due to the continuous Turkish operations in the Kurdistan Region. 

The Turkey-PKK conflict has killed at least 597 civilians, and 226 “individuals of unknown affiliation” since July 2015, according to the International Crisis Group. 

Kurdistan Region receives millions of tourists annually

Around 6 million tourists are expected to visit Kurdistan Region in 2022, the Head of the Region's Tourism Board announced on Saturday.

She also said that the number of tourists visiting the Region's tourist destinations is increasing annually and that it is likely that 6 million tourists will arrive during the current year and 8 million tourists in 2023.

The first half of 2022 has already witnessed the arrival of over 600,000 tourists. Over 315,000 tourists came to the Kurdistan Region during Eid al-Fitr, while the number was 300,000 during Eid al-Adha.

Due to its cooler temperature compared to the rest of Iraq, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to the Kurdistan Region around the time of the holidays annually, mostly from southern and central governorates.

Tourism has been the focus of the Kurdistan Regional Government and a booming sector in the Kurdistan Region in recent years. It was hit by the coronavirus in 2020, but it slowly began to revive last year. 

Millions of tourists have visited the Region since 2021 with over 3.1 million arriving in just the first half of this year. 



PUKmedia