Tourist arrivals in Kurdistan’s Duhok reach 1.7M in 2025

Shafaq News– Duhok

Iraqi Kurdistan’s Duhok province drew about 1.7 million tourists in 2025, buoyed by a spike in arrivals during the New Year holiday, the local Tourism Directorate announced on Thursday.

Speaking to Shafaq News, Tourism Directorate spokesperson Shamal Jaafar reported that snowfall during the holiday period sharply lifted visitor numbers, with most arrivals coming from central and southern Iraq and from within Kurdistan, including Al-Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, and Kirkuk, adding that 350,000 to 400,000 visitors stayed overnight and more than 50,000 arrived between December 20 and 31.

Read more: Eight million visitors: The decade-long explosion of Kurdistan’s winter travel

The lower share of overnight stays, Jaafar clarified, reflects ongoing tourism project expansions and Duhok’s geographic and climatic characteristics, which differ from other provinces in the Region.

Official data show the Kurdistan Region hosted about 8 million visitors in 2024, up from roughly 7 million a year earlier, mostly Iraqis. Despite this broader growth, earlier data indicated Duhok logged fewer visitors in 2024 than in 2023, when arrivals reached about 2.5 million, with no updated provincial breakdown released.

Read more: Discover Kurdistan: The Middle East's best-kept travel secret