Hotel Industry in Iraqi Kurdistan: Supply Hitting the Market

According to Doaa Amin, General Manager of Tangram Hotel Erbil hotel industry in Iraqi Kurdistan is booming. International brands such as Marriott are entering the market and more hotel rooms will enter the market in the next 5 years.

There is definitely huge supply in the pipeline. This supply was announced last year and I have always thought that this was great, because when supply comes in from international brands and from names that are known to be key players in the industry it means that those people have done their feasibility studies and they have proven that demand is also coming.

I believe demand is definitely increasing for Kurdistan. If we look at airlines for example, the number of airlines flying to Kurdistan has increased every year from 2012 to 2014. The number of flights and destinations serviced have also increased and the local carrier was commissioned just a few months ago.
I do think business tourism is going to pick up for sure but business tourism alone cannot be sufficient for any tourist destination or travel hub. This has to be coupled with leisure tourism and all other sorts of tourism. Erbil has a lot of potential for leisure tourism, give and take some regulations that have to be amended and tweaked.