The impact of tourism investment on national income
Ahmed Majed Badawi Hamza
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Abd Ali Kazim Al-Fatlawi

Like any other sector, tourism is an integral part of the national economy. It has an actual role in forming the national product (national income), which varies according to the size and importance of the tourism sector in the national economy. Tourism’s role does not stop at forming national income only. Still, it also creates a chain in the national economy that results in achieving more production and use and subsequently achieving more income. This is known as the tourism multiplier effect.
(Al-Hawri and Al-Dabbagh, 2005: 105)
As Iraq is one of the oil-producing and exporting countries, it has a significant position in the global oil markets (under normal circumstances), and the oil sector contributes effectively to forming the Iraqi national income at a rate exceeding (50%) under normal circumstances. The question arises: how much is the tourism income in Iraq? The truth is that it is tough to reach the size of tourism income in Iraq, and the reason for this is that the Central Statistical Organization (National Accounts) did not give sufficient importance to the tourism sector. (Al-Hawri and Al-Dabbagh, 2005: 121)

Investment in the tourism sector has great importance in increasing the national income of the country due to the positive effects that tourism achieves, directly and indirectly, in the national economy, which is reflected in tourism investments of all classifications and types of investment and the extension of their impact to most branches of the national economy, through the establishment of planned and balanced economic investments in which the contribution of the tourism sector participates through its role in providing foreign currency and in providing job opportunities, as well as achieving a surplus in the tourism balance, which contributes to achieving a surplus in the trade balance through some indicators:
• The ratio of tourism revenues to total exports is an indicator used to measure the role of international tourism activity as a source of foreign currency, according to the calculation of International tourism revenues as a percentage of total exports of commercial goods
The percentage witnessed an increase during the years (2007-2010). Then, the importance of the sector began to diminish in total exports due to the unstable conditions in Iraq, including political, security, and economic conditions due to the diversity of sources of income.
• The percentage of tourism revenues to national income represents an indicator of the diversity of sources of income and in supporting national income as a result of tourists spending on services. In addition to the multiplier effect of income generated by spending from the circulation of tourism revenues in various economic cycles.
The percentage increased (2009 to 2011), while the remaining years saw a weakness in tourism revenues’ contributions. This is due to the lack of interest in this fundamental source, the fifth essential source of income formation for some countries. (Issa, 2020: 13)