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The Taliban hopes to remedy Afghanistan’s many woes by making the highly conservative, poverty-stricken, war-torn country a tourism destination.
Would-be bookers understand they have their work cut out for them.
Visas are hard to procure. The Taliban’s treatment of women is famously abhorrent. None of the the country’s airports have direct flights to Europe, India or China, which the Tourism Directorate in Kabul hopes to make a large market. There’s also an absence of foreign embassies.
But there’s reason for guarded optimism.
In 2021, only 691 foreign tourists visited Afghanistan. The Taliban took control of the Middle East nation in September of that year when U.S. troops withdrew after 20 years of war. The following year, the number of foreign tourists more than tripled to 2,300. That number skyrocketed to 7,000 visitors in 2023.
“They hear that Afghanistan is backwards, poverty and all about war,” business school graduate and aspiring hotelier Samir Ahmadzai told The Associated Press.
He was one of 30 men who recently attended a Taliban-run class in Kabul that trains tourism and hospitality professionals.
“We have 5,000 years of history,” Ahmadzai said. “There should be a new page of Afghanistan.”
No women attended that class with Ahmadzai. The Taliban forbids females from studying past the sixth grade. The strict Islamic leadership also has a dress code for women and requires they travel with a male guardian. Only men go to gyms.
However, the Kabul Serena Hotel— Afghanistan’s sole five-star hotel — recently reopened a women’s spa and salon that’s accessible to foreign females. Its website also advertises a poolside bar and a pastry shop.
According to the Associated Press, aspiring tourism officials quietly contemplate how men in Afghanistan might engage publicly with foreign women in a fashion the Taliban and traditionalists would find acceptable.
Tourism Directorate in Kabul leader Mohammad Saeed told The Associated Press that Taliban officials clearly believe there’s a middle ground to be found.
“I have been sent to this department on the instructions of the elders (ministers),” Saeed said. “They must trust me because they’ve sent me to this important place.”
With News Wire Services
