Even before a group of extreme Islamist fans took control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban coup is making an effort to revive tourism there, which had seemed like an doubtful vacation destination.
The Associated Press ( AP ) noted on Tuesday that Afghanistan’s tourism industry is still viable despite its current rulers ‘ “pariahs on the global stage, largely due to their restrictions on women and girls.”
The AP reported:
The business is struggling, facilities is weak, and poverty is rife. Despite this, foreigners are visiting the nation, encouraged by the dramatic decrease in crime, increased flight connections to hubs like Dubai, and the prestigious vacation rights that come with taking a trip to an unexpected place.
The outlet noted that Afghanistan has a specific “buzz” as a location for serious hospitality.
Although the visitor population remains smaller, it is increasing significantly with every passing year — from 691 in 2021 to some 7, 000 in 2023. Understandably, many of these visitors come from China, which has developed considerable business interests with the Taliban government.
” They’ve told me they do n’t want to go to Pakistan because it’s dangerous and they get attacked. This has also been said to me by the Chinese. This is good for us”, Mohammad Saeed, mind of the Taliban’s hospitality department, said of his Taiwanese users.
Saeed claimed that the Taliban wants to promote tourism in order to promote its law internationally.
On the elders ‘ orders, I have been sent to this section. They may believe me because they’ve sent me to this crucial spot”, he declared.
” Afghanistan’s enemies do n’t present the country in a good light. However, if these people come and see what it’s actually want, they will undoubtedly create a positive impression, according to Taliban Information and Culture Minister Khairullah Khairkhwa in April.
Even more shocking is the shocking resurgence of Afghan tourism because entering the country is challenging, even for Taiwanese visitors, and driving through Afghanistan on its dirt roads is also hard and harmful. Through the organization of gruesome criminal problems all over the country, the Islamic State continues to fight to destroy and overthrow the Taliban. The terrorist organization merely made a claim of duty for a killing rampage that left six people dead at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan.
Individuals attend the funeral of victims killed in a shooting at a mosque in the Gozara area, east Afghanistan’s Herat Province, on April 30, 2024. ( Mashal/Xinhua via Getty Images )
The Taliban’s basic extremism is also a roadblock. Only people are permitted to attend the” teaching academy” the government established in Kabul for hospitality workers. Women are not allowed into many of the region’s common attractions. The best hotel in Afghanistan has re-opened its spa and salon to female guests, but only if they may present an ID proving they are immigrants.
The couple travel agencies that offer services to Afghanistan claim to be attempting to steer their clients away from the regime-controlled amenities and instead focus on smaller, family-run, locally managed attractions.
Oscar Wells, an American tourists, was speaking with Al Jazeera News while he was visiting the Blue Mosque in Mazar i Sharif, in north Pakistan. Wells claimed to have organized the trip through a company called Untamed Borders, which even offers journeys of Syria and Somalia in the midst of battle.
Wells claimed that he made the decision to travel to Afghanistan because his brother was a man who served there and that he was disappointed by President Joe Biden’s devastating 2021 removal.
” I actually felt we had a horrible leave, it created quite a pump and disaster. It’s great to support these people and keep connections”, he said.
On August 29, 2021, President Joe Biden is present at the respectable exchange of a deceased company member’s body at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. The service representative was one of the 13 people of the U. S. defense killed in Afghanistan. ( SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images )
A 53-year-old woman named Stefanie Meier, a person who is alone, claimed she was able to go across Afghanistan without too much difficulty. She had the impression that the people in the country had to live in this way.
” The hunger, there are no jobs, people not being able to go to college, no potential for them”, she lamented.
The leader of Untamed Borders, James Willcox, told Sky News in March that “quite a number of visitors” are flocking to Afghanistan as a “dangerous and trendy place”.
” They want to experience anywhere that’s historically unique, with different meals and architecture”, he said. ” One of the things that appeals when you go to Afghanistan, is you do n’t see life through the prism of tourism. There’s something much more traditional about it”.
Willcox added that, in his opinion,” we can visit places we could n’t visit before, and the overall security situation has generally improved,” compared to when the Taliban were in power.
Tickets to Afghanistan are on the rise, according to a number of other “adventure commerce” businesses, and it has become one of their most well-liked Central Asian destinations.
