A beautiful country in Asia is attracting thousands of tourists, despite being one of the world’s most dangerous places. Afghanistan is arguably the most dangerous countries in the world, getting the lowest score on the Global Peace Index from 2018 to 2024 despite falling levels of violence.
It was also named on the 2024 risk map, in which it was given the highest warning level of “extreme” for security due to the levels of political violence and social unrest, as well as violent and petty crimes. But this is not stopping tourists, with numbers climbing every year. In 2021, there were 691 foreign tourists. In 2022, that figure rose to 2,300. And by 2023, there were 7,000. According to Euronews, this may be due to increased flight connections with hubs like Dubai and the bragging rights that come with vacationing in an unusual destination.
Visas are difficult and expensive for tourists to obtain. Many countries severed ties with Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power and no country recognises them as the legitimate rulers of the country.
The capital Kabul has the most international flights, but no Afghan airport has direct routes with major tourist markets like China, Europe, or India with airlines largely avoiding Afghan airspace. There are also problems with the road network, which is half-paved or non-existent in some parts of the country.
Mohammad Saeed, head of the Tourism Directorate in Kabul, wants Afghanistan to become a tourism powerhouse, an ambition that appears to be backed by the Taliban’s top leaders.
Afghanistan wants to encourage even more tourists with a Taliban-run institute training tourism and hospitality professionals to attract visitors. The 30 students vary in age, education level and professional experience. They’re all men – Afghan women are banned from studying beyond sixth grade – and don’t know anything about the industry.
Business school graduate Samir Ahmadzai, one of the students, said: “People hear that Afghanistan is backwards, poverty and all about war. We have 5,000 years of history. There should be a new page of Afghanistan.”
Classes include Afghan handicrafts and anthropology basics but an unofficial subject is how to interact with foreign women whose behaviour could clash with local customs and edicts.
Examples might be women smoking or eating in public, or mixing with men who are not related to them by blood or marriage. The Taliban have imposed a dress code for women and requirements for them to have a male guardian when they travel.
Dining and travelling alone as well as socialising with other women in public have become harder. With gyms closed to women and beauty salons banned, there are fewer places where they can meet outside the home.