Iraqi Arabs seek vacation escape in Kurdistan

Business and politics
For the Kurds, it's mainly business. For the central government, it may also be politics.

"Kurdistan is part of Iraq, and we encourage Iraqis living in the south and center to visit the Kurdish region," Tourism Minister Kahtan Abbas said in an interview.

Talakani's small office, stuffed with clunky computers and files stacked against a wall, displays a lone tourism poster — showing a lush landscape in the Kurdish city of Irbil, referred to by its Kurdish name, Hawler.

In Saddam's days, most Iraqis were barred from travel abroad and even Kurdistan was largely off limits. The Kurds separated from the rest of Iraq after rising up against Saddam in 1991, aided by a U.S.-British no-fly zone that helped keep the dictator at bay.

After his 2003 ouster, Kurds eased border controls, leading to a first surge of Arab tourism that year, but closed the gates again in February 2004 when suicide bombers killed 109 people in an attack on Kurdish party offices.

Arab visitors are still carefully screened.

Kurdish troops board buses carrying Iraqi Arabs at checkpoints, and compare names with lists sent ahead by the travel agents, travelers say.

"We have very tight security. We don't want Sulaimainiyah to be like Fallujah," said Mohammed Ihsan, Kurdish minister of extra-regional affairs, referring to what was once Iraq's most violent city. "But the visitors are welcomed everywhere in Kurdistan."

The Kurdish Tourism Ministry says it hopes to double the number of Arab visitors next year.

The influx has been good for Sulaimaniyah.

Most hotel guests are Arabs
Shamal Hama Ali, who owns the 25-room Mawlai hotel in the city, said more than half his guests are Arabs. Souvenir shop owner Saman Karim said his Arab customers favor items not easily available at home, such as crystal glasses and copies of classic paintings.

The visitors fill local restaurants, take their children to amusement parks or head out to small mountain resorts.

The Kurds and the central government also try to attract foreigners.

Several foreign airlines fly to Irbil and Sulaimaniyah, and the Kurdish government's Web site boasts that not a single foreigner has been killed or kidnapped in its territory since 2003. Iranian pilgrims make up the bulk of the visitors to the rest of Iraq.

But tourism remains a high-risk business, and the Kurds could close their borders if sectarian violence flares again.

"Tourism like a flower," said Talakani, the ministry spokesman. "It needs a good environment to flourish."

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