The concept of tourist places and their importance

Ahmed Majed Badawi Hamza

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Abd Ali Kazim Al-Fatlawi

Tourist places are a group of sites with a civilizational, cultural, or religious history, whether natural or human, or are considered attractive natural landmarks, an archaeological area, or any area characterized by a love of visiting and enjoying its beauty. Examples of this inside Iraq (the ruins of the Babylonian civilization, the ruins of Uruk, and the natural places in northern Iraq, etc.) Examples of this outside Iraq (the Eiffel Tower in France, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal Palace in India, the Grand Canyon in the United States, Petra in Jordan, and many in other countries) These areas constitute tourist areas visited by tourists from many countries. They are areas or buildings that the media talk about, including magazines, newspapers, television, etc. People go to visit them and see them for themselves. As for the neighboring residents, they go to them to relax, enjoy, and have a good time with their children and relatives.
(Back Machine, 2013: 25)
The importance of tourist places lies in the fact that:
• Tourism through tourist places provides many benefits to both tourist destinations and locations, as it represents one of the essential industries that contribute to raising income at the national and private levels. Also, activating tourist places helps create job opportunities in many fields, such as hotels, car rental offices, restaurants, souvenir shops, service stations, etc.
• Tourism through tourist places helps attract many visitors from all over the world to tourist countries.
• Achieving economic progress: It helps support foreign exchange reserves and contributes to generating foreign currency in the country, as India was able, despite the global recession, to achieve growth in the tourism sector by 6.9%, so its profits in (2010) reached 42 billion dollars. (Anonymous, 2022: 54)
• Developing infrastructure: It contributes to developing infrastructure areas such as building dams and roads, developing airports, linking them with others, and other activities that help tourists reach their destination better.
• It contributes to cultural exchange between peoples, as it encourages societal progress, as tourists learn how to show love, respect, and tolerance and spread them among each other when visiting new places.
• Spreading cultural heritage: It helps clarify the cultural, artistic, historical, and aesthetic aspects of the host country. It also helps tourists retain some of the cultural concepts, local skills, language, and arts and transfer them to other places they may visit in the future.
• Tourism has many benefits, whether at the level of the individual, countries, governments, or peoples, as it is a source of profitable income, introduces history and civilization, and positively impacts human health.
• Tourism through tourist places is one of the essential sources of income for all countries around the world, as many countries depend on tourists who visit their countries to enjoy what they contain within them, whether it is natural scenery, antiquities, or medical tourism as a primary source of income. For this and several other reasons, tourism is considered one of the most essential features that countries can be distinguished by and that all governments care about. (Anonymous, 2022: 55)