The Ministry of Tourism has 417 employees and big plans: "We need three or four times as many hotels as we have now," says Nimrud Youkhana, the minister, "and we need to get more airlines to fly here."
Tourism in Iraq? More hotels in a country whose name evokes images of truck bombs and mayhem, kidnappings and beheaded foreigners?
This is what an advertising campaign in the United States called The Other Iraq, the three northern provinces that blossomed into a quasi-independent state in the 16 years since the US placed a protective umbrella - the 'no-fly zone' - over the region to stop a genocidal anti-Kurdish campaign waged by Saddam Hussein.
Administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the provinces have largely escaped the violence that has been tearing apart the rest of Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, toppled Saddam and uncorked long-suppressed sectarian hostility.
"We have some way to go still," said Youkhana, "but we plan to eventually hold annual folklore events like the Jerash festival," a reference to the Jordanian city which brings together performers from all over the world each summer.
Customers the ministry wants to attract are Arabs from the Gulf who appreciate mountain resorts in an Alpine setting (and a relaxed attitude towards alcohol) and Europeans in search of exotic destinations and archaeological remains dating back thousands of years.
Youkhana's plans, and the mere existence of a Tourism Ministry, highlight a bullish view of Kurdistan's future which is also evident in building projects on a grand scale, from a 6,000-shop mall to a string of US-style gated communities with names such as Dream City, Empire Villas and American Village.
Near the airport, Naz City, a new complex of 14 high-rise apartment towers, is cabled for high-speed Internet access. New hotels under construction include one by the German luxury chain Kempinski.
And rising in the shadow of Arbil's citadel, near where Alexander the Great defeated King Darius of Persia, the huge Nishtiman mall features Kurdistan's first escalator - a magnet for children who ride it up and down in wide-eyed wonder.
There are no detailed figures on how much money has been invested in Kurdistan since 2003, when the rest of Iraq slipped into violence and the north remained stable. The Board of Investment, a government agency set up last summer, has approved more than $3.5 billion in development projects.
The Kurds' main argument to persuade foreigners to visit and invest is security: there is no other place in Iraq where a foreigner can shop in local markets or walk the streets without fear of being killed or kidnapped.
"I feel safer in Arbil or Suleimaniyah than in Camden, New Jersey," said Harry Schute, a retired US army colonel who served in Iraq and is now a security adviser to KRG president Massoud Barzani.
"But people hear 'Iraq' and they think violence. There's a lack of understanding that Baghdad and Arbil are different worlds."
So different that the KRG has all the trappings of an independent state - its own flag, its own army, its own border patrol, its own national anthem, its own education system, even its own stamp inked into the passports of visitors.
Sealed off from the rest of the nation, business is booming. "Things are looking good," said Lezan Shafeea, a sales manager at the sprawling Mercedes dealership in Arbil. "We are selling more top-end models, at $138,500 apiece, than mid-size cars."
Source: China Daily/agencies
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