Taipei - A Taiwan travel agency, after sending a successful
test tour to Iraq, plans to start sending regular tours to the
war-torn country despite warnings from the Taiwan government.
'Our first regular tour will leave on June 13. After that, there
will be about two package tours each month,' Wu Tang-sheng, 50,
manager of the Globair Travel Service, told the German Press Agency
dpa.
'Every day we get telephone inquiries, which shows many people are
eager to visit Iraq because Iraq has not received foreign tour groups
for 20 years, since the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88),' he said.
Globair sent a tour to Iraq in early May to test the waters. The
11-day tour, in Wu's words, went as smooth as silk.
'I phoned Iraq's tourism ministry. My call was passed from one
person to another, but finally the right person talked to me, in
English,' he said.
'In less than a month, all the arrangements were made. As Iraq
does not have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, I planned to apply for
visas from the Iraqi embassy in Amman. But that was not necessary.
They gave us visas upon landing.'
The Taiwan group, led by Wu, was the second foreign tour group to
enter Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, after a group sent
by the British travel agency Hinterland Travel, which toured Iraq in
March.
Most of the 17 members of the Taiwan group, plus Wu, were already
experienced travellers who had visited many countries.
One 75-year-old man named Wang said that out of the 192 member
countries of the United Nations, he had visited 191. Iraq was the
only country he had not visited and he had been waiting for the
opportunity for 10 years.
The tour group flew from Jordan to Baghdad and traveled in a coach
in Iraq, accompanied by a guide and two armed guards.
It visited five cities - Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Karbala, Nasiriyah
- as well as the US-controlled zone in Baghdad, the National Museum
in Baghdad, ancient Babylon, the Zaggurat Pyramid at Ur and several
mosques.
The tourists saw the heavy presence of US troops at many
checkpoints on the roads, 'but we never felt danger,' Wu said.
'We heard no explosion on the tour. It was only after we had left
Iraq that we read about one attack on a US soldier. One US soldier
shot another US soldier. In my opinion, the violence in Iraq has been
exaggerated by the press. On a daily basis, there are more road
accident deaths in Taiwan than kidnappings and suicide attacks in
Iraq,' he said.
The security was better in southern Iraq than in the north.
'In Baghdad and north of Baghdad, we were advised not to go out
after dark. In the south, we could go out at dark. The further south
you go the safer it is,' Wu noted.
In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the group stayed at the Sheraton
Hotel, which was half empty.
After dinner, the group would stay inside the hotel to watch TV -
which offered some 100 channels including CNN and BBC - or looked at
the city from the window. The hotel was surrounded by a low wall for
security reasons.
Sometimes the guide took them to local people's weddings.
Hotels in Iraq offer double rooms with TV, telephone, shower and
air-conditioning. Meals include rice, pancakes, fish, meat, salad and
tea. There is coffee, but the Taiwan tourists said it was not good.
The only 'security incident' on the tour happened when a tour
member went out to take photos in Baghdad by himself one morning and
was detained and questioned for an hour by two dozen police. He was
released after the police contacted his hotel and learned he was a
tourist.
Wu said most foreigners want to visit Iraq for its culture, as a
cradle of human civilization, and its many archaeological ruins, or
for religious reasons, or just for the adventure of a country that
has been off-limits for so long.
Najab and Karbala, two holy cities for Shiite Muslims which
previously barred entry to tourists, are now open.
According Wu, who visited Iraq in 2000, most of the archaeological
ruins in Iraq are intact.
'I would say the destruction is less than 10 per cent, but many of
the artifacts in the National Museum in Baghdad have been looted.
When I was there in 2000, the museum had 20 showrooms. Now it has
12,' he said.
Wu and his 17 tourists returned home to Taipei on May 13 with
beautiful memories of Iraq's historical sites and Iraqi people's
hospitality, but very few souvenirs.
There was not much to buy, he said. The only thing they brought
home were dry dates.
The Taiwan government does not encourage travel to Iraq. The
foreign ministry has issued its sternest travel warning for Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
'The country is still unstable. Extreme militants often attack the
allied forces. Not advised to travel,' the warning on the ministry's
website reads.
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