Obstacles to religious tourism in the holy city of Karbala

Ahlam Hassan Jassim Abdul Karim
Supervised by Asst. Prof. Dr. Fawaz Hamdan Abboud

Tourism represents the main pillar of sustainable development, as all countries seek to achieve clean development free from environmental pollution, and this is what tourism achieves, which is essentially an activity whose goods are services and whose markets are people. Iraq is a tourist country that has all the elements of natural and human tourism, but religious tourism today represents the main pillar of tourism in Iraq in terms of its popularity among Muslims in the world, and the holy city of Karbala represents the first destination for religious tourism, as millions of Muslims visit the holy shrines annually.
Tourism is generally defined as an activity that involves a change in place and time step, and from the economic point of view, the largest part of the definitions focuses on the spatial concept of tourism, as a person is considered a tourist if he moves from his place of residence to another after covering a limited distance. Many early tourism organizations have taken the individual’s travel of 50 miles (excluding going to the work site) as a criterion for determining whether an activity is a tourist activity, but other organizations increase the distance traveled to 100 miles, provided that he stays at least one night away from his home. Religious tourism is defined as traveling from one country to another or moving within the borders of a specific country to visit holy places. It is tourism that cares about the spiritual side of the person, and it is also a mixture of religious and heritage contemplation for the purpose of calling and drawing closer to God. The city of Karbala is considered a major destination for religious visits, and millions of visitors come to it from inside and outside Iraq, so it becomes a basic focus for religious tourism in Iraq. The city of Karbala occupies the first place in the above indicators among all Iraqi cities except Baghdad, and it is certain that Iraq has become a country “open” to the world, which guarantees the freedom to practice religious rituals.