Tourism industry thriving in Iraq

Tourism industry thriving in Iraq
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, July 5, 2009


NAJAF, Iraq — It may be hard for Westerners to believe, but one industry that’s booming, despite the global recession, is Iraqi tourism.

Provinces like Najaf and Karbala, off-limits to outsiders during Saddam Hussein’s long reign, are seeing massive influxes of visitors, mostly Shiite pilgrims from places like Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and even Canada.

According to the U.S. State Department, the number of visitors to Najaf, which along with neighboring Karbala is considered one of the holiest places in Shiite Islam, could range from 7 million to 10 million annually.

At Najaf International Airport, visitors in Western clothes or traditional Middle Eastern dress step off jets and onto air-conditioned buses for the short ride to the airport’s gleaming new terminal. Inside, people queue up to check baggage, pass immigration, change money or buy snacks and magazines while bus and taxi drivers mill about in the car park waiting to take visitors to their hotels.

Seven to 10 flights arrive each day at the airport, which opened last July, according to Kirk Benson, a former U.S. Air Force pilot. As a member of the U.S. State Department’s Najaf Provincial Reconstruction Team, Benson advises Iraqis running the $100 million facility.

The 59-year-old who flew refugees to safety in the Philippines when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and ran an airport in Tucson, Ariz., after he retired from the Air Force, said 14,730 passengers arrived at Najaf International Airport in May.

That number is set to leap next month when Iraq’s central government is expected to approve instrument landings at Najaf. The move will allow flights to land at night and in poor visibility — a constant problem in a place where dust storms often blot out the sun, grounding U.S. military helicopters.

“They expect, in the next few months, to see 1,500 to 3,000 people a day through the airport, and that will grow,” Benson said.

Iraqi tourists and business people are among the people coming in and out.

Iraq has international airports in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Irbil, but Najaf is the only one built since the U.S. invasion in 2003, said Benson.

The year-old airport was built on an old Iraqi air force emergency landing strip that shares a fence line with Forward Operating Base Endeavor, occupied by soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 172nd Infantry Brigade.

The terminal, still under construction, is already processing visitors through customs and immigration and handling baggage. It is scheduled to be fully operational, with duty-free shops and restaurants, next month. Nearby, work has started on a VIP terminal and air freight facility, he said.

On any reasonably clear day, aircraft from carriers such as Iraqi Airways, Cham Wings (Syria), Wings of Lebanon, Pakistan International Airlines and regional carriers like Jupiter and Skylink can be seen taking off and landing at Najaf.

Staff at the airport are a mixture of Iraqis and experts from overseas like ramp manager Phiradech Nasai, who worked at Suvarnabhumi Airport in his native Thailand before coming to Iraq.

“There is not bad situations here in Najaf,” he said.

Iraqi ticket agent Ahmed Jakel, who taught himself to speak English watching American movies, said he started work at the airport last year along with three sisters.

“I also have a tourism company in the city,” he said. “We bring groups and find hotels for them and offer transport. They come for a week to 10 days and we bring them back to the airport to fly out.”

Visitors from Iran spend $250 to $300 a week, he said, adding that he expects more business once the airport starts night operations.

“This airport will take business from Baghdad (International) Airport because it is a lot safer here,” he said. “People who visit Babylon and Karbala will come to this airport.”

The golden-dome of the Imam Ali Mosque, visible from many parts of the city, is a must-see for the Shiite tourists. The shrine, in the center of Najaf, is considered one of the landmarks of Islamic culture with its silver-covered tomb, ceramic ornamented walls and resplendent golden dome.

Nearby, the Wadi as-Salam (Wadi of Peace) is said to be the largest cemetery in the world. U.S. soldiers, who sometimes patrol a highway built through the cemetery by Saddam, are often amazed at the vastness of the graveyard, which has countless tombs decorated with colorful images of the departed.

In 2004, uprisings by firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia sparked fierce fighting in the Wadi al-Salam.

The cemetery contains the tombs of several Muslim prophets, including Ali. Many of the devout from other lands aspire to be buried here and to be raised from the dead with Ali on Judgment Day. An adage says that being laid to rest next to Ali for one day is better than 700 years worth of prayers.

There is a steady stream of bodies shipped through the airport en-route to the cemetery and there’s a thriving local funeral industry, Benson said.
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Hotel workers banking on Western tourists

Former employees hope to return to their old jobs when U.S. forces move out
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, July 5, 2009
HILLAH, Iraq — More than 100 Iraqi tourism workers will go back to work when U.S. forces leave their base in the city of Hillah later this year.
The workers, formerly employed by the Babylon Tourism Hotel in Hillah, will return when U.S. forces move from the hotel to a patrol base on the edge of the city. The Americans were not required to leave Hillah by the June 30 deadline for U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraqi cities because they are associated with a provincial reconstruction team, and the facility is primarily run by the State Department.
The 66-room hotel has been a U.S. center since 2003. These days it’s known as the Regional U.S. Embassy Office in Al-Hillah and serves as headquarters for the Babil PRT and the 172nd Infantry Brigade’s Task Force 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment.
Jeff Daigle, a public diplomacy officer with the Babil PRT, said four other PRTs moved from the hotel to other facilities a year ago. The Babil team will move to Patrol Base Hillah, outside of the city.
A man who gave his name as Fahmi, a Hillah native who has worked at the hotel for 15 years, kept his job when the Americans moved in. Some other hotel staff are also still tending to facilities such as the lush garden in front of the entrance.
But many of the staff members, including people with degrees in tourism and overseas work experience, sit at home, still collecting their wages from the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism, although they are not required to attend to guests.
“They are waiting for the Americans to leave the hotel and then they can get back to their jobs,” he said.
In recent years, dozens of other hotel staff workers who fled Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s time have returned to the area to reclaim their jobs, he said.
In Saddam’s time the hotel was used by Iraqi businessmen when they visited Hillah and by European tourists who came to see the ruins of Babylon, Fahmi said.
American filmmaker Gwendolyn Cates, who is staying at REO Hillah while she makes a movie about Iraqi cultural heritage, said there is a lot in the area that would interest Western tourists.
“Many people in the U.S. don’t know how connected our own society is to the ancient history of Iraq,” she said.
Fahmi said a European travel agent used to organize trips for Westerners who would stay two or three days and visit the ruins of Babylon and other local sites.
“In Saddam’s time, there wasn’t a very large group of Western tourists,” he said, “but they came to see Beersheba, south of Hillah, which is where Abraham the prophet was.”
Archaeologists have identified the nearby city of Ur as the site of the earliest known civilization, estimated to be more than 5,000 years old, he said.
Although the hotel is the only such facility in Hillah, it might be a stretch to keep more than 100 people employed in one facility. But if tourists return, the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism has plans to expand the hotel, he said.
“The security situation is improving,” Fahmi said. “People from France or India or any other country that has Muslims might come to [the nearby Shiite holy cities] Karbala or Najaf. Perhaps they would like to have a visit to the ruins of Babylon on their program.”
Many Iranians already visit Karbala and Najaf, added Fahmi.
“It will be interesting to see if they come to Babylon,” he said.