The Concept, Characteristics and Areas of Tourism Investment‍
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The development and growth of physical and human capital is often achieved through increasing investments in various forms, especially tourism investment, which has become one of the most important components of the production and service process in tourism activity.‍
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It is an effective element among the elements of production, which leads to the creation and increase of tourism and human capital; in order to raise the level of tourism capacity in a country, and improve production and operational capacities; as this includes building infrastructure, hotels and tourist complexes, universities and institutes, etc.‍
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First) The concept of tourism investment‍
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Tourism investment was defined by the World Tourism Organization as follows:‍
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“Tourism investment is the investment development of tourism, which meets the needs of tourists and their host sites, in addition to protecting and providing opportunities for the future, and setting guiding rules in the field of resource management in a way that achieves the requirements of economic, social and cultural issues, thus achieving cultural integration, environmental factors, biodiversity and supporting life systems.” ) Boulos, 1989: 40)‍
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It has also been defined as the ability aimed at forming physical capital and preparing human capital in the tourism sector in order to increase and improve its production and operational capacity and provide the best tourism services through building hotels, tourist cities, restaurants, cafes and parks, in addition to preparing a specialized and efficient tourism cadre (Al-Khawam, 2001: 23).‍
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Abdul Mutalib Mahmoud defined investment as: using available economic resources in their various forms to build new production capacities and maintain and expand existing production capacities in addition to all additions to the commodity stock and compensate for the depletions that affect existing production capacities in tourism activity and what results from it in increasing the contribution of this activity in forming the total added value and thus increasing the economic and social welfare for society. (Al-Saeedi, 2005: 40)‍
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(Ali Mughmas) added another definition of tourism investment, which is the employment of various material and financial resources to build the tourism industry represented in material and human capital in order to provide services in the field of tourism such as hotels, tourist cities, entertainment and comfort facilities, transportation and communications, and preparing a competent professional tourism cadre (Hawra, 2013: 2).‍
Investment can be defined procedurally as an investment in one of the projects that enhances the global and local tourism product and services related to the tourism industry. (Al-Asadi and Al-Najm, 2007: 27)‍
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This type of investment means that the investor directs part or all of his money in his possession to the tourism investment opportunities available in the environment in which he intends to invest. The global tourism movement has developed widely in recent years, as the number of travelers to tourist destinations in the world has doubled. Therefore, Arab or foreign investment is the investor who requests to invest his money in activating tourism in Iraq as an investment to operate the investors’ exhibition from revenues and in various regions and archaeological, historical and religious sites. It is a process of operating money instead of hoarding it and providing job opportunities in society (Al-Asadi and Al-Najm, 2004: 23).‍