According to Duhok’s tourism board, about 80 percent of tourists are registered in the summer season, with the majority traveling from federal Iraq.
Restaurant and hotel owners are most affected by the decline in tourism brought about by the drop in temperatures, with most having to send their workers home due to financial constraints.
“No one comes here in winter, tourists come here in summer, and they are mostly Arabs,” Osman Munir, a kiosk owner, told Rudaw’s Haydar Doski on Wednesday.
“In summer we have 10 people working here, but in winter we have three, four, or five,” he added.
Since the beginning of this year, about 1.4 million tourists have visited Duhok province.
“2023 was a very good year for advertising for the group tours compared to 2022, we promise to do a special advertisement for tour groups to visit Duhok and the Kurdistan Region this season to enjoy the beauty of Duhok province and the Kurdistan region as well,” Sinan Najar, the owner of a tourism company, said.
The province’s board of tourism, with representatives of tourism companies, visited some of the main attractions in the area to draw up a plan to attract visitors in the winter season too.
“We have told companies to bring Kuwaiti and Qatari tourists, we are trying to attract Gulf tourists,” Khairi Ali Oso, director of tourism in Duhok, told Rudaw.
There are more than 230 tourist areas in Duhok province and most of them are closed in winter because tourists do not visit them and the number significantly decreases.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) plans to attract 20 million tourists per year by 2030.