SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Around 147,000 tourists visited the Kurdistan Region for New Year celebrations, the Region’s tourism board said on Sunday.
The General Board of Tourism in Kurdistan said 146,898 tourists entered the Kurdistan Region between December 25-31 to participate in the New Year celebrations and to visit tourist places.
As many as 76,550 tourists entered Erbil and 31,614 others visited Sulaimani during the period, the board added. Up to 38,734 others went to Duhok province.
The tourism industry is reviving in the Kurdistan Region after a year of hardship due to coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the Region’s revenue from tourism dropped by 75 percent due to measures taken against the virus outbreak.
Over the past two decades, the Kurdistan Region’s economy had been heavily reliant on the oil and gas sector, which has driven the Region’s development.
Kurdish authorities have been trying to diversify but the collapse of world oil prices had dealt a heavy blow.
On Thursday, the Region’s tourism board said more than 4 million tourists visited the Kurdistan Region in 2021. Most of them were from central and southern Iraq, according to the board.
