The Impacts of the Renovation Master Plan on the Tourism Development in Archaeological Site of Erbil Citadel

Abstract

Many countries around the world get multiple benefits from receiving tourists who are attracted to archeological sites. Thus, policymakers become highly aware of the importance of adequately managing the tourism sector, which can gradually support the development of the tourism industry. Nevertheless, the lack of an integrated tourism policy is one of the most important factors that many developing countries do not have. The specific problems about culture and heritage tourism have challenged those countries and dealing with domestic challenges for many years has been the main concern that developing countries have invested less in tourism development regardless of being rich in their cultural heritage sites. Thus, having many cultural heritage sites is important to give these countries many opportunities to develop tourism sectors. However, in Iraqi Kurdistan, there is serious attention to cultural heritage management, protection, and preparing them for tourist purposes.

This paper explores tourism’s impact on cultural heritage conservation and the potential for cultural tourism growth. By looking at the perspective of different stakeholders in the cultural heritage industry, the study gives an understanding of the challenges in protecting cultural heritage sites. Following it explores the different impacts of tourism development on the site of Erbil Citadel in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq very specifically. This paper sheds a light on these impacts and recommends achieving more sustainable tourism development on the site. This study depends on secondary data, which is collected by the High Commission for Erbil Citadel (HCECR) and analyzed in the context of this study, besides, using and reviewing the main textbooks and written documents about the Erbil heritage site, a clear view will be given based on the data and the documentations.