During his July visit to Washington, al-Zaidi placed investment at the centre of diplomacy, pursuing partnerships with major American energy and infrastructure companies and presenting Iraq not as a permanent theatre of crisis, but as a market capable of absorbing capital on a significant scale. Agreements announced around the visit were valued by Iraq’s oil minister at approximately $200bn. Such numbers should be treated as prospective commitments rather than completed investment, but the direction is unmistakable: al-Zaidi wants international capital to see Iraq differently.

The economic case for this shift is urgent. Oil accounted for an estimated 53% of Iraq’s real GDP, 88% of government revenue and 91% of merchandise exports in 2025, leaving the country acutely exposed to production restrictions, lower prices and regional disruption. The IMF estimates that oil revenues could continue to represent more than 90% of government income through 2030 without substantial reform, while Iraq’s non-oil growth declined from 13.8% in 2023 to about 2.5% in 2024.

Al-Zaidi therefore inherits not merely an economic challenge, but a question of national resilience. His strength is that he appears to understand investment diplomacy as an instrument of sovereignty: the broader Iraq’s partnerships, private sector and productive economy become, the less vulnerable Baghdad will be to fluctuations in one commodity or pressure from any single foreign power.

Tourism should become one of the defining pillars of this diversification. Iraq possesses six UNESCO World Heritage properties and an almost unparalleled concentration of civilisational, archaeological and religious assets: Babylon, ancient Ur, the citadel of Erbil, the southern marshlands, the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, the historic memory of Baghdad and the mountain landscapes of the Kurdistan Region.

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Yet the country’s most widely available internationally comparable tourism data remain strikingly outdated. The World Bank records 892,000 international arrivals in 2013, while recorded international tourism receipts reached approximately $955mn in 2020. These imperfect figures reveal both a statistical weakness and an economic opportunity. Iraq is already receiving substantial religious and regional travel, but has not yet converted the full scale of that movement into an integrated visitor economy built around international hotels, destination management, cultural routes, retail, restaurants, entertainment, transportation and professional tourism services.

Aviation will determine whether this potential becomes an investable industry. Iraq’s National Development Plan states that its airports handled approximately 2.04mn passengers in 2022, compared with almost 3.97mn in 2018, illustrating both the damage caused by instability and the scope for recovery. Baghdad International Airport’s existing three terminals have a combined theoretical capacity of roughly 7.5mn passengers a year, while the redevelopment programme envisages a new terminal initially capable of handling 9mn passengers and later as many as 15mn.

For al-Zaidi, these should not be regarded simply as transport projects. Airports are economic platforms: they attract airlines, hotels, logistics providers, conference organisers, retailers and international investors. A coherent programme linking Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Karbala, Mosul, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah with simplified visa procedures, modern airport services and stronger global airline partnerships could transform Iraq into a regional junction between the Gulf, Türkiye, the Levant and Central Asia.

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The test of al-Zaidi’s leadership will be whether his evident ambition can be translated into institutions that outlast political cycles: predictable regulation, transparent public-private partnerships, investment protection, credible procurement and consistent security. There are serious obstacles, and no responsible investor will ignore them. But frontier markets are rarely transformed by leaders who wait for perfect conditions; they are transformed by leaders who create confidence before it fully exists.

Al-Zaidi’s youth, commercial background and early emphasis on international economic engagement give him an unusual opportunity to become the architect of Iraq’s post-oil transition. If he treats tourism, aviation and travel-related infrastructure as national development policy rather than peripheral entertainment, Iraq could generate employment across every level of society, give new commercial life to its extraordinary heritage and reposition itself as one of the Middle East’s most consequential investment stories.

His task is not simply to govern a country rich in oil, but to reveal the far greater value of the Iraq that exists beyond it.

L’article Iraq’s new prime minister has an opportunity to make tourism a national priority  est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

1. Development Road

Dubbed the Development Road, and estimated to cost around 17 billion dollars, the infrastructure project aims to tie the Grand Faw Port in Iraq’s oil-rich south to Turkey. The country would be effectively turned into a transit hub by shortening travel time between Asia and Europe and competing with the Suez Canal.

The Development Road is not just a road to move goods or passengers. This road opens the door to development of vast areas of Iraq.

Farhan al-Fartousi, Director General of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, for Reuters

The project was announced at a conference convening delegates from the Arab Gulf states, Syria and Jordan. According to Reuters, a senior government aide said regional investment was on the table. Before courting Arab interest, on 21 March, Iraq and Turkiye agreed on a number of economic deals, including the rail and road network.

The network will start from Faw Port, which is under construction in south Iraq, and will pass through ten Iraqi governorates. The project foresees the construction of electric high speed trains for freight and passengers and is expected to cost around 10.5 billion dollars, while the 1,200 kilometre motorway will cost 6.5 billion dollars.

“We will make this line active again and tie it to other countries,” said Fartousi, having in mind plans to transport tourists and pilgrims to Shiite holy sites in Iraq and Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the Haj pilgrimage.

2. Regional investment

With the support and investment of regional partners, Iraq’s government envisions high-speed trains moving goods and passengers at up to 300 kilometres per hour, links to local industry hubs and an energy component that could include oil and gas pipelines.

On May 16, the competition of designs for building a rail and road network with Turkiye was announced by the Director General of the Public Company for Rail in Iraq, Younus Khalid.

“This is a giant and strategic project, the largest in Iraq and one of the largest projects of its kind in the region…It will complement the Faw Port project and will turn Iraq into a major logistics hub,” said Khalid.

The project is expected to  be completed in 2028 or 2029 and will largely boost Iraq’s trade with Europe via Turkiye.

L’article Iraq launches $17bln road and rail project to connect Asia and Europe est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

This boat was once one of the Iraqi dictator’s greatest symbols of wealth and power. With a length of 120 meters and a weight of more than 7000 tons, the former presidential yacht had been assembled in Finland and delivered to Iraq in 1983. Although Hussein bragged about it as a prized token for himself, the curious thing is that he never actually used it.

When it was owned by the former president, no one could come close to it.

Hussein Sabahi, fisherman

After the invasion of Iraq by US troops in 2003, Saddam Hussein ordered the yacht to be moved to Basra for better care. However, the Americans, upon learning of this fact, attacked the luxury yacht in the Basra canal and left it adrift. Now the yacht has become a meeting point for tourists and fishermen who often gather to have picnics and take pictures on it.

In photos taken in 2003, the Al-Mansur is seen floating in the river with its upper deck blackened by a fire caused by the bombing. The ship began to tilt in June of that year and capsized when the engines were stolen. This created openings and water entered, whereupon she lost balance and sank. “When it was owned by the former president, no one could come close to it,” fisherman Hussein Sabahi told CNN. “I can’t believe that this belonged to Saddam and now I’m the one moving around it.”

Anchored at a dock near the Al-Mansur, the Basrah Breeze, is equipped with swimming pools and at one time a missile launcher. It is partially open to the public who want to visit this relic of the country’s recent past.

To the surprise of many visitors, Saddam never sailed on the 82-meter Basrah Breeze, which was yet another extravagance of the Iraqi dictator. The yacht’s presidential suite is decorated in shades of gold and cream, a king-sized canopied bed and plush 18th-century armchairs, and its large bathrooms have gilded faucets. Accommodating 30 passengers and 35 crew, the Basrah Breeze, delivered in 1981, has 13 bedrooms, three lounges and a helipad.

L’article Will Saddam Hussein’s yacht become a tourist attraction? est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

The project is supported by the Swiss director Milo Rau, artistic director of the Ghent Theatre (NTGent), one of Europe’s leading drama scenes. Rau has already visited the war-torn north of Iraq several times since 2016.

Helping to create a Film Department in Mosul might seem exceptional for a European theater scene but it is the logical extension of a collaboration that has been going on for years.

Milo Rau

The city of Mosul is a former stronghold of the Islamic State group, which was liberated in 2017, but is largely in ruins. In his 2019 play “Orestes in Mosul,” Milo Rau transposed Aeschylus’ Greek tragedy into a story confronting Iraqis with issues of homosexuality and misogyny. The play involving local actors was performed at the Mosul Cultural Center.

Several actors and Belgian film professionals such as the cameraman and filmmaker Daniel Demoustier are participating in the course. “The students have been trying out different roles as they pair up to make their films,” said Demoustier to Euronews.

All the equipment like lenses and sound gear brought in from abroad will stay with the goal for the students to pick it up again and start making their films on their own.

Daniel Demoustier, Belgian filmmaker

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This structural collaboration that starts between the two Belgian and Iraqi institutions is part of a vast project of UNESCO (“Revive the Spirit of Mosul”) which also focuses on the reconstruction of churches and mosques. The Paris-based UN agency launched the initiative in 2018.

L’article New film school in Mosul created in partnership with a Belgian theater company est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.