1 million tourists enter Kurdistan in 9 months

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The head of the Tourism Department in Kurdistan announced that the region received one million tourists in the first nine months of this year. Mawlawi Jabbar said, in a press conference, that the increase was 250 thousand tourists compared to last year figures. He added that the future plans are to reach 4 million tourists by the year 2015.

In the first three quarters of 2011, 1.15 million tourists have visited Kurdistan Region. More are yet to come: the authorities are making preparations for the Eid al-Adha holidays due next week. In the whole of the 2010 only 900,000 tourists visited Kurdistan.

Other preparations include the provision of camps in case hotels and motels are as happened in previous festivals according to Yasin Faqe, director of Sulaimaniya’s Tourism department.

Faqe also said that a committee will monitor the hotels, motels and restaurants to make sure the prices are not raised during the Eid holidays.