The Western tourists going to Iraq for vacation

By Richard Collett, CNN

As Tommy Driskill, a YouTuber from Hawaii who's better known by his moniker, 'Dude Abroad', sat down for a traditional Iraqi breakfast of kahi and geymar (pastries and clotted cream) outside a hole-in-the-wall cafe in downtown Baghdad, he couldn't help but think it was a surreal experience.

"It was peaceful, calm, and rather quiet," Driskill told CNN Travel after visiting Iraq in 2024. "The street table view, though, is that of a bullet-ridden building across the road. [It was] a scar left from a darker time - in an area [that,] I was reminded, was once not suitable to stand even for five minutes on the side of the road during the war."

Despite heightened tensions across the Middle East, Driskill is one of an increasing number of Western travellers visiting Iraq as tour operators move in on the country.

Home to a wealth of attractions - including the ancient ruins of Babylon, the Mesopotamian Marshes and the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan - Iraq is often dubbed the "cradle of civilization" because it's here that the ancient Sumerians developed the wheel, the world's first writing systems and established urban centres from 5300 BCE onwards.

Multiple governments advise against travel to Iraq for security reasons. Travellers concerned about human rights issues also have reservations about visiting a country whose government in 2024 criminalized same-sex relationships and drafted a controversial amendment that would effectively allow for child marriage.

Yet the country is luring adventurers, with Iraq's minister for culture, tourism and antiquities assuring the travel industry that the country is safe at 2023's World Travel Market and as Baghdad sets its sights on becoming 2025's Arab Tourism Capital.

A 'do not travel' destination

The US Department of State classifies Iraq as "Level 4: Do Not Travel," warning against threats of terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict and civil unrest. The United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also advises against all travel to Iraq except to the semiautonomous Kurdistan region in the north - an area with a distinct Kurdish culture and language which has operated largely independent of Baghdad since 2005. To Kurdistan it advises against all but essential travel.

Official warnings are little surprise given the sectarian violence following the US-led invasion and occupation in 2003 and the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, which was responsible for the disappearance of between 250,000 and 290,000 Iraqis over decades, according to Human Rights Watch.

Iraq's security situation deteriorated again with the rise of ISIS in 2014, whose self-declared caliphate committed atrocities perpetrated against Iraq's Yazidi minority, which the UK parliament recognized as a genocide in 2023.

Driskill grew up watching news reports of the war in Iraq, but his home country's travel warnings had the opposite effect, sparking his curiosity.

"Iraq has been on my travel radar for years," said Driskill, whose 12-day trip with Bil Weekend, an Iraqi tour operator, took him to centuries-old markets in Baghdad and holy Shia shrines in Karbala, an hour south.

"I'm always drawn to off-the-beat destinations, especially ones the US State Department advises citizens against travelling to. Political dynamics aside, I've continuously found a common humanity in all of us. In my mind, I assumed Iraq would likely be the same."

Iraq has experienced a period of relative stability since ISIS's defeat in 2017, although US forces continue to carry out air strikes and raids on ISIS holdouts, including a joint operation with Iraqi forces in August 2024 that saw 14 ISIS fighters killed.

Since 2021, when the Federal Government of Iraq began offering visas on arrival at Baghdad International Airport for 30 nationalities, including citizens of the US, UK and European Union, tourism has picked up.

According to the Kurdistan Chronicle, the Kurdistan Regional Government Tourism Board has even set itself the lofty target of welcoming 20 million annual visitors by 2030. Most of those are likely to be domestic - according to Kurdistan-based news network Rudaw, a quarter of 2023's tourists were international visitors. In 2023 the region exceeded the seven million mark, according to government figures.

'The time is ripe'

International tour operators say they're experiencing a sharp uptick in demand for Iraq. Lupine Travel, a UK operator specializing in lesser-known destinations, launched tours to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 and Federal Iraq in 2018.

"We've seen a very remarkable increase in demand for travelling into Iraq," Robert Kyle Molina, Lupine Travel's tour manager, told CNN.

"Especially into Federal Iraq, to places like Baghdad, Babylon, Mosul. Every year the demand has doubled. Two years ago we ran one trip, last year two trips and this year four trips. The word is getting out. The time is ripe to visit."

Risk management and mitigation is a "major part" of what tour operators do, said Molina. The company liaises with a network of local contacts and security consultants in the countries they visit, preparing possible evacuation routes - by land or air - in advance, and monitoring ongoing security situations during the tours.

Baghdad resident Ali Al Makhzomy founded Bil Weekend in 2016 to revive cultural tourism to heritage sites after realizing they were woefully undervisited - despite Iraq being home to thousands of years of human history.

"Every year we're seeing more people come to Iraq than before," he told CNN Travel. "Demand is definitely increasing, but most people don't even know they can travel here."

Al Makhzomy says that Iraq is seeing unprecedented investment in hotels and tourism infrastructure. Yet, he says, the main challenge faced by the emerging tourist industry is the country's negative image.

"The war ended years ago and we still only hear of Iraq when it's linked with conflicts," he said. "But Iraq, the land of 'Arabian Nights,' has more than a thousand stories to tell! Those stories need to be experienced by living the journey and discovering the real Iraq."

All-women tours

Iraq might seem like an unlikely destination for all-women tours, but Janet Newenham, a content creator and entrepreneur from Cork, Ireland, says otherwise. Newenham first visited in August 2021 and told CNN Travel that she never imagined Iraq becoming one of her favourite travel destinations. She loved it so much she now runs women-only tours there through her company Janet's Journeys.

Initially nervous after having less than positive experiences as a female traveller in some countries, she was surprised to find herself at a music festival with university students on her first day in Baghdad. "Iraq couldn't have been more different. It was totally surreal," she said, echoing the same experience as Driskill. "We even ended up at a theme park, on bumper cars, everyone laughing. I had to pinch myself to remind myself I was still in Baghdad!"

Newenham described her first all-women group tour in October 2021 as an "absolute roller coaster of a trip."

"It felt like we were the first ever female-only tour group travelling in Iraq, and we caused quite a stir," she said. The trip wasn't without its challenges. In Karbala, one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam, they needed to be covered from head to toe (excluding the face) and Newenham had to remind the group that it was prohibited to wear lipstick or nail varnish in the holy shrines.

In Mosul, which was under the control of terrorist group ISIS until 2017, there were security concerns, including the threat of unexploded bombs.

Newenham said her local guides provide detailed security briefings during trips. In Mosul, guests visit local charities involved in the lengthy demining process, who explain the danger of unexploded bombs and provide updates on which areas of the city have been cleared.

"To be honest though, I don't think travelling as a group of women is any more dangerous than travelling as a group of foreign men," she said. "Either way, you'll draw a lot of attention. As a tall blonde woman, I feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb, but that just meant people asking for hundreds of selfies."

Iraq is now one of her most requested tours.

"It's a destination where people return, feeling like they've had a life-changing experience," she said. "Each year we have more and more people reaching out to travel with us to Iraq - and demand only seems to be increasing despite the devastating current events in the Middle East and Palestine."

Religious tourism

Iraq's religious sites have long attracted tourists and pilgrims alike, including Christians. Immediately following the 2003 invasion, there were reports of Christian pilgrims braving war zones to visit holy sites and today, Al Makhzomy says that one of his largest customer bases is churchgoers looking to visit biblical sights like the supposed Garden of Eden, which is reputed to have existed somewhere between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and to which various modern-day sites stake a claim.

In 2021, Pope Francis visited Ur, home to a Sumerian Ziggurat - a pyramid-like temple and shrine complex with elements thought to date to around 2,000 BCE - as well as one of the world's oldest Christian communities. Reuters reported in March that a new church was due to open in Ur to attract Christian pilgrims.

Sergio Arce, a Spanish YouTuber documenting his travels around the world, was struck by the wealth of history and culture surrounding Iraq's religious attractions when he visited earlier this year as part of a group tour, also with Bil Weekend.

"Visiting the [ninth-century] Great Mosque of Samarra is a must," he told CNN Travel. "The Shia shrines [will leave you] speechless, not just because of their beauty and detailed architecture, but also because of the faith and devotion you can see."

In 2024, nearly 21.3 million pilgrims made their way to the Imam Hussain and Al-Abbas shrines in Karbala as part of Arba'een, one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world, which commemorates the end of a 40-day mourning period for the death of Hussain ibn Ali (a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed) at the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE.

Arce said he found himself there alongside visitors from Sweden, the UK, Iran, Kuwait, Pakistan and India. He was struck by the hospitality of the Iraqi people who offered free food, water, shelter, and even foot massages to visitors.

"I could share countless examples of hospitality and kindness," said Arce, who also highlighted the generosity of "Mawkwibs," or free "service stations," established during the festival to provide hospitality to pilgrims. "But I'd never feel like my words could fully do them justice."

Skiing and trekking

UK-based tour company Untamed Borders has operated in Iraq since 2016. The landscape has changed dramatically, says founder James Wilcox. "When we started, Daesh [ISIS] controlled a large portion of the country," he told CNN Travel.

"Visitors could only visit Federal Iraq in groups of five or more through a tortuous visa process. Now Iraq has a straightforward visa-on-arrival system, and we've been trying to develop different types of tourism, especially ski touring and trekking."

Untamed Borders organizes ski trips to the Kurdish mountains, which in winter are draped in snow, a far cry from the desert-like landscapes of the south. It takes runners to the Erbil Marathon, and in April 2025 it's launching a new trekking tour through the dramatic peaks of the Zagros Mountains, on the newly created Zagros Mountain Trail, which connects remote communities on ancient pilgrimage routes for multiple religions including Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam.

Nowhere else in Iraq is tourism surging so fast as in Kurdistan. The local tourism board reported that the semiautonomous region's capital, Erbil, received 2 million visitors alone in the first half of 2024. If the upward trend continues, total figures for 2024 will likely beat the 3 million visitors Erbil province saw throughout the entirety of 2023.

Iraq's tourism industry is still in its infancy. Travel is hampered by reconstruction efforts in the war-torn country, with Lupine Travel's Molina telling CNN Travel that it's not uncommon for tourism sites to be under maintenance, and often closed at short notice. Archaeological sites have been woefully underfunded for decades, and many artifacts - like the famous Ishtar Gate that once stood outside Babylon (modern-day Hillah), and is now in Berlin's Pergamon Museum - are found in European, rather than Iraqi museums.

For Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, tourism to the country is allowing visitors to see the real Iraq.

"Unfortunately, media representation of Iraq over the last few decades has been dominated by scenes of violence and war," she says.

"The stereotypical image that comes to mind when many people think of Iraq is a tank in the desert. But in reality, Iraq is an incredibly diverse country in every sense of the word, and rich in natural beauty, history, and culture. The landscape varies dramatically from the marshes in the south to the mountains in the north, and its cultural heritage dates back thousands of years representing countless civilizations.

"Today, Iraq is enjoying its most stable period since before the US invaded in 2003. The security situation has significantly improved, and petty crime like pickpocketing is relatively uncommon. Iraqis are famous for their generosity and hospitality, and tourists can expect a warm welcome - and probably multiple invitations to a meal, tea, or even a wedding.

"Over the few years, I've been pleasantly surprised to meet more and more tourists visiting Iraq - like the Greek student visiting his university classmate, a group of friends doing a motorcycle tour of the country, and an elderly couple who came to birdwatch."

Military and police checkpoints are a daily sight, particularly given the central government's loose influence over militia-controlled regions of the country. Travellers also face ethical questions about whether they should visit a country whose laws have been condemned by human rights groups.

Earlier this year, Iraq passed a law punishing same-sex relationships with up to 15 years in jail. Though the legal marriage age in Iraq is 18, Iraqi parliament is currently considering an amendment to its Personal Status Law that would allow for some Islamic jurisprudence provisions to take precedent, effectively legalizing marriage for some children as young as nine.

Sanbar warns that: "For Iraqis, human rights are increasingly under threat. Civil society and activists face increasing restrictions and harassment for speaking out and fighting for their rights.

"Most of the threats to human rights in Iraq are unlikely to affect the average tourist who enters the country with an open mind and a respectful attitude towards Iraqi culture. However, certain aspects of a tourist's identity, such as their sexual orientation or gender identity, citizenship, or profession, may make a trip to Iraq more risky or difficult. Reading up about the history and culture, and talking to Iraqi friends or people who have visited is always a good idea."

Safety is inevitably the primary concern for tourists planning a trip to Iraq, but Driskill says he felt secure throughout his trip.

"There wasn't a single time I felt in danger while visiting Iraq," he said. "Quite the opposite, in fact. Baghdad felt safer than most major American cities. I was constantly told, 'You are welcome in Iraq, habibi.' Heck, half the time, people would invite me to their home for lunch!"

- CNN