Afghanistan: Tourism as drive train of the economical development

By Ulf Amann
eTurbonews
Somebody (still) knows Afghanistan as a hippie trail journey destination. But since 1979 the impressive landscapes and evidences of a varied past have been out of reach for tourism. In the regions of central Asia tourism booms – but Afghanistan's tourism potential is unexploited, which also constitutes a disadvantage for tourism development of other countries on the Silk Road. Some appropriated concepts making aimed tourism development possible should improve the situation.

"Can people go there again?" was the most frequent question of the guests at the Afghanistan stand in the biggest public fair trade about traveling in Stuttgart in 2006. The first entry of Afghanistan in tourism fair gets a remembering of a country experiencing a continually changing tourism in the ’70s.

In 1977, 117, 000 tourists went to Afghanistan spending 38 million dollars in the country. As the Tourism Office states, in 2005 2,200 travelers out of 64,000 were tourists.

 With the invasion of the Soviet troops in 1979, this development abruptly and it was not possible to restore it until now. After the liberation from the Taliban regime, the international donor countries community got stabilization through investments in the agricultural sector, in the mine clearance and in the education sector. Only in the conference for Afghanistan the donor countries carried out in January 2006, tourism was seen as a factor in the process of reconstruction and new begins.

Afghanistan's tourism potential is settled in the natural resources of the country, in the very antithetic and intact landscapes. High mountains in Hindukush with summits higher than 7400 m, deserts and sub-tropical climatic zones and the most extreme temperature contrasts in the world (from +50 to –53 grades C) characterize Afghanistan natural aspect. As a part of the Silk Road, Afghanistan also represents a classical transit place with Alexander the Great's evidences and Marco Polo´s descriptions. Cultural treasures as the UNESCO world culture heritage (destroyed) Buddha statues in Bamiyan witness Buddha times trade roads. The Friday Mosk in Herat witnesses the zenith of the Islamic era.

Tourism potential is also constituted by the booming tourism in Afghanistan neighbor countries. Mainly because of the Silk Road, tourism develops itself as an important economical factor in countries like Uzbekistan, Iran and Kyrgyzstan since their liberation.

An exotic destination like Kyrgyzstan counts 183,000 tourists (2002), Kazakhstan 3,237,000 tourists (2003) and Pakistan (which can be compared with Afghanistan from the natural and cultural point of view) 648,000 tourists (2004) (Source: http://www.sesrtcic.org/)

By a journey to middle Asia, the typical western tourist does not think about an individual country, but about a completely international region. In this way, the countries do co-operate and make the organization of international journeys easier. For this reason, incoming agencies have a great interest in making journeys to Afghanistan possible.

A great number of important conditions for tourism development are not given yet.  Indeed the first travel groups do travel on the ancient main routes between the individual tourist destinations, but they see themselves as pioneers enjoying the charm to discover forgotten, legendary "treasures" again.

Western travelers take the actual lacking stability and security as an absolute no-go criterion for Afghanistan. In fact, traveling in Afghanistan without suitable precautions is not inadvisable at the moment and the freedom of movement for the tourists is limited. (Source 400 CMT visitors survey by ILTIS).

So, travelers have to be protected against possible risks through unobtrusive security measures in the context of the tour organization. If it proves to be successful, information concepts about the positive "Afghanistan" experiences of the tour members can be created in order to produce abroad a varied and real picture. Here, Afghanistan can learn from the experiences of courtiers like Yemen or Mozambique. Both of them have the kidnapping (Yemen) and mines risk (Mozambique). Both of them successfully fight this negative image with development concepts for a tourism form suitable for the situation. Result: Tourism rates grow.

Infrastructure is underdeveloped in Afghanistan. Inland traveling is comfortable almost only with the Afghan airlines. On the country ways, the road number between the towns in not sufficient, even if it is slowly getting better. Public means of transport are not available for western tourists yet, but individual travelers and groups can hire suitable cars. The flight connection to abroad is good. Twice a week, the state airline Ariana flies with modern plane from Frankfurt to Kabul. Istanbul and Baku are also on the flight plan. There are also two connections Dubai-Kabul every day.

A bank system is being developed, but it is only available in Kabul until now. In all regions phone via GSM is possible, Internet is only possible in greater cities and is very expensive. Several foreign and an Afghanistan conveyance handle the freight traffic. Health care is equivalent development status, not sufficient.

(Part one in a two-part series)

February 21, 2006   Posted in: Afghanistan