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Kuwait recently launched a forum to promote domestic tourism and attract foreigners, saying it was time to open up the states doors after the overthrow of evil Saddam regime. Kuwaiti government now intends to develop tourism and compensate the lost in the past. Since Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in august 1990, Kuwait has remained virtually closed to foreign visitors who needed to pass through painful bureaucratic procedures to obtain a visit visa, mainly due to security concerns. But the state has made an irreversible decision to make tourism a strategic option for development. Kuwait is pinning great hopes on the way for developing a tourism industry in a country that raises more than 90 per cent of its income from oil. Kuwait needed to focus on building a strong infrastructure for a tourism industry that would encompass new hotels, condominiums, restaurants, amusement parks, shopping malls, and tourist help offices. Kuwait, with its strategic location in the north of the gulf between regional powers Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia, is banking on luring gulf tourists in the first phase of a long term tourism plan. Studies show that 2.4 million residents of Kuwait, 62 per cent of whom are foreigners, spend more than two billion dollars a year during 1.3 million tourist trips abroad. About 79 per cent of Kuwait’s population make at least one tourist trip every year, of whom 73 per cent travel abroad. Kuwait has only 29 hotels of various grades with 4,000 rooms, in addition to 1,700 rooms in furnished apartments and 1,350 rooms in small tourist resorts. It has only 10 entertainment sites, 23 cinemas and theatres, and 23 modern shopping malls in addition to a long and well-developed seafront. About 17 major touristic sites and resorts are under construction. Kuwait has also decided to transform failaka island, about 12 km (7.5 miles) off the Kuwaiti coast, into a touristic site with several mega entertainment projects planned. Discos and liquor are banned in Kuwait, and hotels cannot stage musical concerts without a prior permit from the government. Developers has given a progress report on ongoing works at three major projects on the islands of Bubyan, Failaka, and Khiran resorts area. Jaid cape is a very good spot around the island where the water is deep enough to serve not only as a port in Kuwait, but also an international one that would be capable of harbouring giant vessels with heavy cargo, particularly with the anticipated heavy marine traffic needed for the Iraq reconstruction process. Another project concerns developing the 46-km-long Sulaibikhat coast, and will include mainly tourist resorts, health centres, restaurants, hotels, and shopping malls. The successful execution of these projects would constitute a gigantic leap in the development of Kuwait’s economy, since the main purpose of such projects is to promote the national economy through foreign investor participation, and creation of employment opportunities in the country. |