Most of the visitors are from southern and middle Iraq.
The Kurdistan Regional Government Department of Tourism said today that 67,000 tourists visited Sulaimani province between December 25, 2022 and January 3, 2023. "Over 80 percent of them came from central and southern Iraqi cities," the department said in a statement.
The record high number of tourists in just one week has policymakers working to further develop the tourism sector in the province.
According to the tourism department figures, the number of tourists visiting Sulaimani has more than doubled, as only 30,000 tourists visited the governorate in 2022.
Sulaimani ranked as the first most visited place in the Kurdistan region, as Erbil General Directorate of Tourism said that 61,658 tourists visited Erbil during the same period.
Many Iraqi and foreign tourist visit the Kurdistan region on holidays, especially Iraqis from the south that take the weather and security in the Kurdistan region for granted.