By Jamie Watt
Conde Nast Traveler has just named Erbil one of Asia’s must-visit destinations for 2026. Take a moment with that list. Hong Kong. Seoul. Shenzhen. And Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. I have lived here for over ten years, raised my family here, and I will tell you plainly: this is a big deal. Not because the recognition is surprising to those of us on the ground, but because of what it means for Kurdistan to be in that conversation at all.
This is one of the world’s most read travel publications, telling a global audience to come here. To book the flight. To put Erbil on the itinerary alongside cities that have spent decades building their international reputations. And Kurdistan belongs there. That is the story worth telling.
Here is what those first-time visitors will find. They are going to find a city that feels nothing like what they expected. The Gulf cities offer something polished and transactional: professional hospitality in impressive surroundings. What you get in Erbil is different. You walk into a barbershop and leave feeling as though you have made a genuine friend. That is not a tourism strategy. That is simply the culture here, and travelers feel the difference almost immediately.
They are also going to find depth. The Citadel is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth, but Kurdistan is not one landmark and a good dinner. It is mountains that turn dramatically green in spring, Assyrian ruins that predate Rome, Yazidi heritage sites, ancient Jewish pilgrimage routes, and a diversity of communities: Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Turkmen, Armenian, and Yazidi. That mix gives this place a texture found nowhere else in the region.
And then, if they stay long enough, they are going to discover something rarer still. After ten years here, I am still finding new things. Last year I discovered a new swimming spot in nature. The Jerwan Aqueduct, built in the seventh century BC and five centuries ahead of Roman engineering, sits in open landscape in Dohuk with no ticket booth, no crowd, no trail guide. You simply walk up to it. Most destinations exhaust that feeling quickly. Kurdistan keeps producing it because so many of these places are genuinely undiscovered, not in any fashionable sense, but actually barely on the map.
None of this has happened by accident. The KRG has committed over $13 billion to tourism development, the Citadel restoration continues to open new cultural spaces, and a genuine arts and music scene has taken hold in the city. Mountain trekking routes, luxury hotels, experienced guides: the infrastructure is here. Over $46 billion in total investment across the Region over two decades has built something durable, and the ambition to welcome 20 million annual visitors by 2035 is grounded in that foundation.
Hong Kong. Seoul. Shenzhen. Erbil. That is Kurdistan’s address now, at least as far as one of the world’s most trusted travel voices is concerned. For those of us who have watched this city grow and keep surprising us, the question is not whether we belong on that list. It is what we do with the moment now that we are on it.