A UK travel agent returned safely to the UK this week after attending a four-day fam trip in war-torn Iraq where he intends to start organising packages.
IKB Travel & Tours owner and general manager, Saad al-Khafaji said he had made the trip to Erbil in the Kurdistan Regional Government-controlled area in the north of the country in preparation for the programme that he hopes to introduce next month.
Special report: Tourism to Iraq
Al-Khafaji has teamed up with a ground-handling partner Hinterland Travel, which specialises in some of the world’s worst trouble hot-spots including Afghanistan and Kashmir. He is confident the tours will prove popular despite the dangers involved.
“There are no tour operators or agents going out there and I want to be at the beginning of this destination’s opening for tourists,” he said. “The good business opportunities come if you take the risk and go there at the beginning.”
Iraqi-born Al-Khafaji said Erbil has avoided the troubles which have affected the country since the start of the second Gulf War in 2003. He said the nine-strong fam trip group encountered no difficulties.
“We were totally safe without any bodyguards of our own and we watched the US troops walk around the city without their guns,” he said.
The main attractions for tourists are the mountainous scenery and the archaeological remains. Plans are already under way to build a ski resort, al-Khafaji added.
Hinterland Travel managing director Geoff Hahn added he has been running tours to the country for 30 years and already 15 customers have booked for the 21-day May package which takes in southeast Turkey and northwest Iran as well as Kurdish Iraq.
He is confident he will soon be taking bookings from customers keen to visit Iraqi Kurdistan only, particularly among London’s Iraqi community.