Economic Evaluation of the Domestic and International tourism market in the Kurdistan region

Younis Ali Ahmed, Dr.

	Economic Evaluation of the Domestic and International tourism market in the Kurdistan region
AL-dananeer
Article 1, Volume 1, Issue 9, 2018, Pages 166-185
Author
Dr. Younis Ali Ahmed
Abstract
The Kurdistan region has a multiplicity of cultural and archaeological attractions, including a complex of mountain caves where 15,000-year-old fossils have been discovered. The Kurdistan region has great potential to attract a large number of tourists. However, research on the tourism market in Kurdistan is scarce, and to the best knowledge of the researcher there is no current literature on tourism that analyzes the tourism market in the Kurdistan region for domestic and international tourists. Therefore, this study provides a useful analysis and its findings will serve to fill the gap in the literature on the role of the tourism market in the tourism growth of the Kurdistan region. This study attempts to analyze the tourism activities in Kurdistan region by determining and evaluating the tourism market for domestic and international tourism. This study also evaluates the current and future directions of the tourism sector in this region by selecting problems and difficulties faced by domestic and international tourists during their travels to the Kurdistan destination. To achieve these goals, this study adopts the statistic technique with economic analysis to evaluate the tourism market in the Kurdistan region, and the primary data are from a survey of (664) visitors that was conducted during 2012 to 2013. The empirical result shows that political stability and security had a positive effect on the development of the tourism market in the Kurdistan region, however, the number of tourists from developed countries has continued to decline because of the lack of services and difficulty in getting a visa. Lastly, The Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Tourism in the Kurdistan region should adopt a comprehensive plan and provide essential services, which are currently lacking, to attract more tourists and satisfy their desires. Keywords: Domestic Tourist, International Tourist, Tourism Market, political stability, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

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