The shooting against a group of tourists on Friday in Afghanistan, which left three Catalans and three Afghans dead, raises a reasonable question. Taking into account the political and security situation in this troubled Central Asian country and the warnings from Western authorities to step on it, why are there tourists in Afghanistan?
The explanation is simple: the Taliban want to open up and whiten their regime through tourism. In fact, yesterday’s attack can be read as a serious blow to the Taliban government’s recent effort to promote tourism in order to boost the economy and clean up its international image. And the attack, which took place in a market in the city of Bamiyan, in the center of the country, is the first suffered by foreigners since the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021. Thus, a relative peace is broken ( since the attacks against Afghans have not stopped), imposed by the regime, which had encouraged, although timidly, the visitors to return.
Recently, the Taliban inaugurated a tourism and hospitality institute to improve the country’s tourism infrastructure. Foreigners “hear that Afghanistan is backward, that it is poor and that everything has to do with the war. But we have 5,000 years of history. We should start a new page in Afghanistan,” Samir Ahmadzai, a student at the said institute in Kabul who had already graduated in business and wanted to open a hotel, told the AP agency a few weeks ago.
The Government has sought to assure tourism agencies that Afghanistan is safe for visitors, despite the continued threat from an Islamic State-affiliated group in the region, which has carried out sporadic attacks aimed at destabilizing the Taliban government. . The spokesperson for the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture, Habib Ghafran, highlighted at the beginning of the month that the Taliban had the cooperation of security personnel to guarantee the safety of travelers to all regions of the country.
The rulers of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (official name) are considered pariahs on the world stage, largely due to their draconian laws against women and girls (which are more lax for foreign tourists). Its economy is in trouble – with difficulties in addressing the humanitarian crisis that the country is suffering -, the infrastructure is deficient, which makes internal displacement difficult, and poverty abounds.
Likewise, Western governments warn of the dangers of visiting the country. Since January, the Spanish Government “very seriously advises against” traveling to Afghanistan, “under any circumstances.” This was recalled this Saturday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who was “horrified and shocked” by the death of the three Catalans, but not surprised, due to the fragile security of the Asian country. “There is a certain risk of kidnapping or attack anywhere in the country. An event like yesterday could clearly happen,” he said in statements to Rac1.
The minister explained that the injured woman is in critical condition, after undergoing emergency surgery in Kabul, but is conscious. “This gives us hope,” she declared. And that the rest of the group of travelers, two people also from Catalonia who were unharmed, will be able to leave the country tomorrow.
As for the shooting itself, Albares defined it as an indiscriminate attack or attack. “In Afghanistan, these types of situations occur very often, when there are Western citizens,” he noted. According to the oral account of one of the survivors, a person appeared from an alley shooting, ”very clearly,” at the group of tourists, he added.
On its website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalls that the Spanish embassy in Kabul is closed until “security conditions allow its opening” and has moved to Doha. The diplomatic mission, like most international delegations, suspended its activities after the capture of the capital by the Taliban.
And yet, foreigners are visiting the country, encouraged by the slight drop in violence (at least until Friday not against foreigners) or the increase in air connections with centers like Dubai. The figures are not very significant, but there is a certain buzz around Afghan tourism. In 2021, 691 foreign tourists were registered, a figure that increased to 2,300 in 2022 and up to 7,000 in 2023, as reported by Ap.
And the visits have continued to grow. According to a report published by the Taliban government’s statistics department to which the Russian agency Sputnik had access, a total of 14,478 men and 675 women of foreign nationality arrived in Afghanistan between April 2023 and April 2024.
Mohammad Saeed, head of the Kabul Tourism Directorate, explained to AP that the largest market for foreign visitors is China due to its proximity and large population. Saeed told the news agency at the end of last month that Chinese and Japanese tourists told him that they preferred to go to Afghanistan rather than its neighbor Pakistan because “it is dangerous and they are attacked.”
Among all the attractions that the country presents, the Bamiyan Valley, 130 kilometers from Kabul and rich in archaeological remains, is the “most prominent tourist destination in the country,” the Afghan embassies say on their web portals. Bamiyan, located on the Silk Road, houses the remains of two giant statues of Buddha from the 6th century, which were destroyed by the Taliban during their first period in power in 2001 because they were considered blasphemous.
The site, which has thousands of caves, monastic complexes and Buddhist shrines and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracted Buddhist pilgrims and tourists for decades. And it was once considered one of the safest areas in this country devastated by decades of war and conflict.
“The exquisite beauty of this valley is surrounded by the snow-capped mountains of Kohe Baba in the south and in the north by the steep cliffs on which enormous images of Buddha are carved,” describe the Afghan embassies of different Western countries in their website.
