DUHOK, Kurdistan Region – Resorts of Duhok province have seen a dramatic decline in the number of tourists over the past few days following the tragic deaths of nine tourists and the wounding of dozens more due to artillery shells blamed on neighboring Turkey.
Turkish forces shelled a tourist site in Parakh village of Zakho district on Wednesday, killing nine Iraqi tourists and injuring 23 others from the country's central and southern provinces.
Resort owners in Duhok have expressed concern that this incident may deal a huge blow to the tourism sector in the Kurdistan Region as a whole, and Duhok in particular.
Until July 20, resorts of the township of Darkar were bustling with tourists from central and southern Iraqi provinces, but now, it is void of tourists.
As you can see, resorts have seen significant [financial] damages in our region. If it continues like this, it may deal a huge blow to us because we have spent money on building this place. In the past, people used to call us on Wednesdays and Thursdays to make reservations for Friday. But now, of 48 canopies, only one of them has been reserved, Safar Khalat, a resort owner in Darkar, told Rudaw's Ayub Nasri.
Despite the tragedy in Parakh village, Duhok authorities have vowed to attract as many as two million tourists to the province in 2022, Khairi Oso, head of Duhok's tourism directorate, told Rudaw on Saturday.
Iraqis have expressed strong condemnation for the deadly attack through protests, attacks on the Turkish embassy in Baghdad and Turkish visa application centers, calls to boycott Turkish products, and anti-Turkey hashtags on social media.
On Thursday, Iraqi protestors called for the expulsion of Turkish ambassador Ali Riza Guney from the country.
The Iraqi government on Wednesday called on Turkey to withdraw all its troops from the country. [1]