آلية مقترحة لتنمية السياحة في محافظة كربلاء المقدسة و تطويرها

Abstract EN

Karbala province is characterized with a rich history and a religious heritage, due to having the holy shrines of Imam Hussein Bin Ali (peace be upon him) and his brother Al-Abbas (peace be upon him), along with the shrines of companions and loyalists, not to mention the many Islamic monuments, such as religious schools, Haseniyahs, and Islamic-style libraries.

This holy city also has a number of natural landmarks such as Lake Razazah, Ain al-Tamr, Al-Hindiya, in addition to the archaeological and heritage sites including Al-Ukhaidur castle, Al-Tar caves, and Shamoun castle, or the urban spots like ancient homes, baths, and markets …etc.

Therefore, the research aims to shed the light on all of tourism potentials in Karbala governorate, and the most prominent obstacles that impede their development and exploitation properly, in order to turn this city into a local and global tourist hub through adopting deliberate strategic planning policies by the government to regulate the work of those unexploited potentials in accordance to scientific foundations.

Thus, a comprehensive tourism strategy for the governorate, will be proposed through which supports the national economy due to its role in tourism continuous revenues throughout the flocking of tourists over the year, as well as to support for the economic and social life of the city's residents.

The descriptive analytical method will be relied upon in order to reach those goals.

The study recommends the importance of a development tourism strategy for the tourism sector in Karbala, where tourism potentials in the governorate are exploited, whether they were religious, archaeological, heritage, or natural, without focusing on a tourist segment without the others, which will lead to neglecting other segments of tourism and relying on certain landmarks only.

The attention given to all the potentials will provide economic and social financial returns that will reflect on the economy of the governorate through the provision of additional incomes and employment opportunities for individuals.