Tourism to Kurdistan: the reproduction of old cliché or constructing of new images?

This research attempts to discover and analyze the contexts, reasons and consequences of tourism to Kurdistan in the framework of interpretative – constructionist paradigm. To do this empirically, we have relied on grounded theory as an approach of qualitative research, and we have used deep individual interview gather data. The findings show that tourists choose Kurdistan as their destination due to the effects of social networks and unusualness of this area. Natural phenomena, cultural representations and economic aspects are among the main influential contexts, and the tourists’ knowledge and experiences are the most paramount intervention factors. The tourists have chosen Kurdistan according to three strategy: cultural tourism, natural tourism and economic tourism. The tourism to Kurdistan has some important consequences such as “attitude shift toward local inhabitants”, “getting pleasure”, “constructing realistic images”, “and the rise of social marketing”, “buying commodities’, and “extending social solidarity”.