All Is Not Lost For Iraqi Tourism
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http://www.travelindustryreview.com/news/6637 By Kadum Wailli Bombings, conflicts and deaths are not the only ones making headlines out of war-torn Iraq. It turns out that efforts are being made to revive the country’s once flourishing tourism industry.
European and Arabs companies have submitted proposals to build an airport on the road between Najaf and Karbala, which are the holy cities located south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Recent reports indicate that nine Arab and foreign companies made offers to compete for the building of an airport worth of US$3 billion between the two most important holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, 100 kilometers south of Baghdad.
"Nine companies from Kuwait, Italy, France, Turkey and Belgium made offers through Iraqi companies according to the investment law for the establishment of the new international airport in Karbala, costing US$3 billion,” said the chairman of the Reconstruction Committee in the city, Mr. Falah Al-Hasnanwi. "All offers will be studied by Iraqi experts, and it is expected to proceed next year."
Al-Hasnanwi added: "The airport will be implemented on an area of 220 acres .Tests were conducted in the region and received OK according to the international specifications.”
The construction is scheduled to take about three years to complete.
Kerbala and Najaf cities are holy cities that bring ten of thousands of pilgrims from Iran , Europe and Gulf area each year.
In another development, the official spokesman of Najaf governorate announced the signing of understanding memoranda between Najaf governorate and the US-based commercial manufacturer Boeing.
"During the visit of the delegation of the American Boeing Company to Najaf International Airport last Thursday, and meeting with the governor of Najaf, Ashraf gAsaad, and chairman of the committee implementing the Airport of Imam Ali, Abdul Hussein Abtan, there were discussions about ways of providing technical and informational by Boeing,” Ahmed Abdul Hussein Deibel said. “In addition to exchanging experiences and holding training courses for the working cadres in this area and the possibility of making a partnership contract to operate the airport, when is achieved, and provide it with airplanes."
He added, "Boeing promised to make frequent visits and sign understanding memoranda between the two sides."
The Boeing delegation visited the site of Imam Ali Airport and briefed on the work carried out at the airport of internal roads, the helicopters airstrip, aircraft parking plaza and the rest of the work executed.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi-based Rotana Hotels said on Tuesday it would develop a $55 million five-star property in Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdish region, which has largely been spared the violence affecting the rest of the country.
Rotana, which has 25 hotels across the Middle East, will compete for a growing hospitality business with the Erbil International Hotel; the city's only other five-star property, where a standard twin room costs around $300 a night.
"This is part of our strategic aim to have a property located in every key city in the Middle East," Rotana president Selim el-Zyr said in a statement.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government is trying to encourage investors to develop Erbil's hotel infrastructure and turn the city into an entry point to Iraq for foreign businesses.
The Ministry of Tourism last month said three or four times the current numbers of hotels were needed.
The city's international airport handled about 170,000 passengers in 2006 and the regional government is building a new airport to handle 1.5 million, according to the London-based Kurdistan Development Corporation.
Austrian Airlines became the first European carrier to resume scheduled flights to Iraq last year when it began twice-weekly services to Erbil from Vienna.
Rotana's 205 room Erbil property, scheduled to open in 2009, is owned by Lebanese holding company Malia although potential investors are “still welcome,” according to president Jacques Sarraf.
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Baghdad Soup Kitchen Feeds Sunnis Shias
In a city riven with sectarian bloodshed, workers at a 13th century Baghdad mosque mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by feeding the poor and preserving a bygone spirit of co-existence.
The Sunn (27/09/2007)
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Baghdad Office / Agents
Mr. Walid Abdul-Amir Alwan
Bab Al-Mudham
P.O. Box 489, Baghdad - Iraq
Mobile: +964 790 183 1726,
E-mail: itmbaghdad@tcph.org
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