Tourism not terrorism

Our man Kim Sengupta reports that the Iraqi government has come up with the winning slogan “tourism not terrorism” to try and attract visitors to the land of Babylon. Delegates from Basra have taken inspiration from the upsurge in tourism seen in Northern Ireland since the IRA ceasfire,

Hamood al-Yakoubi, head of the Iraqi tourist board, is adamant that the ambitious project remains on track. “Of course we have problems after what has happened to this country, but we are rebuilding and we must look forward,” he said. “Iraq used to have lots of visitors coming in the 1970s and 80s, so we have a tradition of tourism here. As we get more peace, people will come. Our job is to make sure that they get looked after well, they have nice places to stay and a comfortable way to travel.” link

The Kurdish government had much the same idea in 2006, although I’m not sure how successful their tourism drive was.
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