www.independent.co.uk A $85 million, five star, 23-storey hotel rising in the city centre; an opulent palace complex being turned into a theme park; cheap flights to the picturesque 'Venice of the East': all the trappings of a country gearing up for a tourist boom. Following decades of privation caused by wars and United Nations sanctions, the country - with its massive oil wealth promised fabulous returns, and its vast array of antiquities, picturesque marshland and miles of golden coast, as well as 102 airports - make tourism look particularly promising. Now with a new constitution and elections in the offing, officials insist there is a new beginning.
The Iraqi tourist board currently has 2,400 staff and 14 offices around the country. There has also been a significant rise in the volume of travellers, with Iraqis either leaving the country or expatriates returning for visits.
And there is also the continuous and steady number of foreigners, mainly contractors, coming in for the huge wages they can now command for working in such a risky environment.
The hotel is very much at an embryonic stage. It is planned to be inside the Green Zone in the centre of the Baghdad. The land has been donated by the Iraqi government, and an Iraqi businessman is providing the finance.
Thair Feeley, the chairman of the Iraqi Commission for Investment (ICI), insists everything is in place.
"It is not true that it will be a five star hotel", he says with a dramatic flourish, "but a seven-and-a-half stars one".
The hotel is intended to have the usual accruements of the top of the price range - plush suites, business centres, conference halls, and a golf range.
Despite the carnage outside and its somewhat shabby appearance, the Rashid can still charge $150 a night and foreign visitors, apart from a handful from the media, stay inside the Green Zone. |