Spring Break Iraqi Kurdistan

Months after unveiling misleading tourism ads on the three US news channels -- which Arianna Huffington called "sad" -- the government in Northern Iraq is now lobbying airlines to fly into their tourist spots:

The Ministry of Tourism has 417 employees and big  plans: "We need three or four times as many hotels  as we have now," says Nimrud Youkhana, the minister, "and we need to get more airlines to fly here."

Tourism in Iraq? More hotels  in a country whose name evokes images of truck bombs and mayhem, kidnappings and beheaded foreigners?

Arbil is probably the safest city in Iraq, and it is located in the north.  But other than that, you have Mosul, where 28 villagers were killed in a truck bomb earlier this week; or Kirkuk, where the goalie on the Iraqi soccer team was abducted by gunmen on Monday.

But even Arbil is not a place where any of us would want to be.  It is near the border, where thousands of Turkish troops are amassing as they wait for invasion orders. 

They will be hard-pressed to find US and European airlines willing to jeopardize their firm's future.  Give it at least a few more years.

Comments

[George]

JFK to Erbil International: $1863.13 for coach. A little too pricey for my cheap taste. Oh and the whole being in the same hemisphere of iraq deal doesnt sit well either.

http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2005/10/independentstate376.htm

[Chief Editor: Todd]

The way I see it, if MTV can hold it's annual spring break party there, then it's safe.