Baghdad-INA
The Tourism Board, affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, announced on Tuesday that several Iraqi villages had been nominated for the competition to select the world's top 100 tourist villages.
The Tourism Board said Iraq possesses significant potential to develop eco-tourism and rural tourism, adding that promoting Iraqi villages globally would open new opportunities to develop the tourism sector and diversify its offerings.
Ali Yassin Abdul Redha, director of relations, media and spokesperson for the Tourism Board, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the Board, as part of its efforts to develop eco-tourism, particularly rural tourism, was working to capitalize on Iraq's unique diversity, ranging from deserts and marshlands to mountainous areas.
He added that specialized bodies had spent a full year assessing a number of villages in line with criteria set by the U.N. World Tourism Organization, noting that there are 70 international benchmarks used to select the world's top 100 tourist villages.
He explained that the nominated Iraqi villages included areas in Halabja, Mosul, Duhok and Erbil, in addition to the village of Abu Subat in Dhi Qar province, adding that the objective was not merely to win, but to encourage village residents and local communities to pay greater attention to eco-tourism, particularly rural tourism, which plays a major role in developing the tourism sector.
He stressed that Iraq possesses considerable potential in this field and that the authority's vision has always been to involve local communities, as tourism cannot be sustained without their participation.
He noted that there are genuine foundations for development and incentives, adding that the criteria adopted include environmental stewardship, the local community's commitment to traditional, heritage and folk handicrafts, and excellence in preserving them, as well as encouraging communities to protect and maintain the cleanliness of their environment and adopt sustainability principles across all sectors.
He said the aim was to advance the concept of responsible or green tourism, describing it as highly important, as the nomination process would help shine a spotlight on those villages through experts and specialists in rural tourism within the U.N. World Tourism Organization, which comprises 160 member states, thereby promoting and marketing the villages internationally.
He noted that the organization had invited countries to submit nomination dossiers and that there was full coordination between the Tourism Board and the organization. He added that a new framework for bilateral cooperation was being considered both before and after the selection process, including providing the authority with the necessary standards or dispatching experts to train local personnel on the concepts of responsible and green tourism, particularly in light of severe climate change impacts, as well as encouraging the expansion of green spaces, the conservation of clean water and the sustainable use of resources.
He explained that the nominated villages would be promoted across 160 countries around the clock for an entire year, adding that eco-tourism and rural tourism do not necessarily entail the construction of concrete infrastructure or hotels, but rather the development of resorts that blend with and reflect the natural environment of the village.
He noted that one of the main challenges facing the authority is broadening local communities' understanding of tourism, particularly responsible and sustainable tourism, as tourism can only endure through the participation of all sectors, including the private sector, which could benefit from this new and distinctive experience.
He stressed that this approach would have a clear impact on developing and diversifying the tourism sector by combining archaeological, heritage, environmental and nature-based tourism, in what he described as diversification of the tourism product, so that it is not limited to a single type of tourism. He added that, under the Board's vision, efforts are focused on making the tourism sector productive, sustainable and capable of competing internationally.
