Afghanistan, a high-risk tourist destination that has been on the rise since the arrival of the Taliban

In spite of the international warning not to visit Afghanistan for any reasonthe promise of an authentic adventure through the less-traveled corners of the planet has been luring tourists to the country in recent months. Despite being under the Taliban regime, the country received approximately 5,000 foreign tourists between March 2023 and March 2024.

Most come from the neighbor China, the result of good diplomatic relations between Beijing and the de facto Taliban government. But there were also visits from tourists European countriesas recently stated by the fundamentalist government’s Deputy Minister of tion and Culture, Muhajir Farahi.

The Taliban have done their best to sell what the country is safer since their arrival in August 2021, although the attacks have decreased as they were the ones who carried out the majority of attacks before taking power. Now the presence of the jihadist group Islamic State has become its biggest challenge.

He Friday’s attack on a group of foreign tourists in a bazaar in the city Bamiyanin the center of the country, a popular tourist destination for its archaeological heritage, has focused on this flow of visitors.

Besides three Afghans, three Catalan tourists were killed and four others – a Spanish woman, a Lithuanian woman, a Norwegian and an Australian – were injured, according to the Spanish government.

90,000 tourists in 1970

Last year’s 5,000 visitors are a far cry from the nearly 90,000 foreigners who traveled to the Asian country in 1970, decades before the rise of the Taliban.

Insecurity, combined with instability, placed him as one of the least visited in the worldaccording to international tourism revenue statistics from the World Bank, dating back to 2020.

The country has beautiful landscapes mainly thanks to its mountainous areas, and was part of the famous ‘hippie route’ between Europe and South Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, before the Soviet invasions in 1979, and the United States in 2001.

although the return to power of the Talibanafter his victory in the war in August 2021, caused the total paralysis of tourismthe country is increasingly trying to be an attractive destination, mainly promoted by fundamentalists. A British-based online travel agency offers visitors “the hidden gems and rich cultural tapestry of Afghanistan; a country that has captured hearts for centuries,” with trips from $2,858 per person for approximately nine days, departing from Kabul.

The provinces of Kandahar, Ghazni, Mazar e Sharif, Herat, Bamiyan and Kabul are the most attractive and exotic.

In addition to the lakes and caves, it was the huge stone sculptures of Buddha once destroyed by the Taliban because they were considered an example of idolatry that made Bamiyan famous, long considered one of the safest areas of a country devastated by decades of war and conflict.

The The Spanish embassy in Kabul was closed in 2021 with the coming of the Taliban to power and today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Spanish government strongly advises against visiting the country.