Tourism: victories doubled the number of visitors and tourists arrivals

Tourism: victories doubled the number of visitors and tourists arrivals

 

4/25/2017 0:00

Baghdad / Ahmed Abd Rabbo      
Tourism Authority confirmed that the great victories achieved by the security forces against the "Daesh" terrorist gangs doubled the preparation of visitors and tourists coming to the country. As revealed near the assignment of a number of tourist sites in Baghdad and the provinces on the investment, it attracted to it is currently moving towards maximizing financial revenues.

3.5 million foreigners  
, said head of the Tourism Authority to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Antiquities, Hamoud Hassan al - Yacoubi, in an exclusive interview with the "morning": that the great victories achieved by the security forces Besnovha all against "Daesh" dark bands, doubled dramatically preparation of visitors to the holy shrines and tourists coming to the country.
He noted that the number of arrivals to the country from different nationalities reached in 2014, more than one million and 400 thousand expatriates, while the number rose in the following year, to 2.5 million, doubling the number in 2016 , surpassing the three million and 500 thousand expatriates.
He Yacoubi said the large increase in the number of foreign tourists, encourage operations development of the tourism sector, especially that the country has all kinds of tourist Caldenah and archaeological and recreational purposes, and this is what distinguishes it , indicating that the body is working at a vigorous pace on the development of tourism in all provinces in the country as the ensures the development of the national economy.
He said that religious tourism leads the tourism landscape in the country, but to take advantage of the economic viability did not reach the required for the existence of many obstacles level, the most prominent urban expansion of hotels and other tourist facilities in the provinces of Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala are not thoughtful, in addition to the overlapping of powers between the parties responsible. Facilitate the issuance of entry attributes and regarding the issuance of entry attributes, head of the Tourism Authority, stressed that his department has worked to facilitate the issuance of entry visas for expatriates to the country, through the introduction of the single window system, explaining that the system includes the presence of representatives of all government agencies responsible for issuing entry , such as external feature and internal security agencies at the headquarters of the Tourism Authority to issue entry attributes as soon as possible. And that thanks to this system, the time of issuing a visa, will not exceed four days at the present time, recalling that the system, easy work of tourist companies as well as doubled fiscal revenue accruing to government entities responsible for it. He Yacoubi that his ministry is currently moving towards re - look at entry features that will ensure increased financial revenues of the state, pointing out that the ministry is in the process of signing a new memorandum of understanding with the Iranian side on the preparation of a gathering point for Iranian visitors a way that ensures the interests of the two countries. He stressed that the whole will be applied soon , a new mechanism that will facilitate the process of issuing tourist companies, to activate the tourism situation in the country in various directions in addition to supporting the private sector and make it able to insert the hard currency into the country and the creation of new jobs, adding that the mechanism will authorize the Commission to issue a certificate tourist experience , similar to the Association travel and tourism companies. Chairman of the Tourism Authority pointed out that his department suffers the presence of large numbers of phantom and non - licensed companies, indicating that it is currently working on the liquidation of those companies through the formation of specialized committees that will be forwarded to the violators of the judiciary. Activating the role of investment and in terms of activating the role of investment, he stressed that it falls within the strategies constituency, being one of the self - financing circles, adding the body to come to the referral of a large package of tourist sites in Baghdad and the provinces to invest and operate within its future plans to launch tourist sites new in the whole country. And the whole Yacoubi that succeeded last year to refer the tourist island of Baghdad as an investment opportunity, valued at 105 billion dinars for a period of 38 years, pointing to the keenness of the whole advancement of the tourist sites through the involvement of the private sector. He noted that the Commission is working in cooperation with the provinces to increase the number of tourists coming to the marshlands, but the lack of a class hotel first in the marsh areas, hampering efforts in this direction, calling at the same time local governments to encourage investment for the creation of tourist sites provide services tourism to foreign tourists.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]