Looking for Vacation? Try Afghanistan

There's a new building in town, and it isn't a military barracks or a hospital. It's a Tourist Information Center.

Even as troops fight militants in the south, government officials and donors in Afghanistan's central Bamiyan valley are training tour guides and teaching restaurateurs about customer service. It's an attempt to draw tourism and return one small part of Afghanistan to normalcy.

The challenges are many — land mines, dangerous roads outside Bamiyan, and, not least, Afghanistan's reputation as anything but a tourist haven. But the hope is to persuade history buffs and adventure seekers that Afghanistan can be safe, and locals are eager to give it a shot.

"I can improve my province this way, and my homeland," said 19-year-old Zahra Naseri, as she rattled off facts about the calcium carbonate that gives the ground a whitish cast around a series of cascading mountain lakes. Naseri is one of about 20 people, mostly university students, who gather once a day at the tourist center for lessons on how to become tour guides. "I want to show that Bamiyan is a historical place."

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The tourism training program is funded through a Geneva-based Islamic organization, the Aga Khan Development Network, as part of a $1.2 million ecotourism program. All Afghan tourism initiatives are currently funded by international donors, according to Deputy Minister for Tourism Ghulam Nabi Farahi. New Zealand and Japan are big donors in Bamiyan.

Back in the 1960s, Afghanistan was a major stop on the "hippie trail" of backpackers and enlightenment seekers. Foreigners tramped through on their way to India, staying in teahouses and touring the ancient cliff-hewn Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

There are now signs that tourism is increasing again, however slightly. Airport and hotel records show more than 400 foreigners had visited the Bamiyan area by early June, up from about 180 the same time in 2008, said Najibullah Ahrar, a representative from the information and culture ministry. He said many of them may have mixed work in the area with seeing the sights.