If you're one of the people who are fortunate enough to still be able to afford to take a vacation in this economy, perhaps you and your family are planning a getaway this summer. There are still plenty of solid options, and many struggling tourist hotspots in America are hungry for your tourism dollars. Alternatively, you might be looking for something a bit more exotic involving a trip overseas. London and Rome are still exciting destinations, despite the ongoing protests and unrest. But if you're looking for something that's really off the beaten path, have you considered... Kabul? The Taliban have been running the country ever since Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal in 2021 and they're really hoping you will book your adventure there. The Associated Press claims that "there's a buzz around Afghan tourism."

Around 30 men are crammed into a Kabul classroom, part of the debut student cohort at a Taliban-run institute training tourism and hospitality professionals.

It’s a motley crew. One student is a model. Another is 17 and has no job history.

The students vary in age, education level and professional experience. They’re all men — Afghan women are banned from studying beyond sixth grade — and they don’t know anything about tourism or hospitality. But they are all eager to promote a different side of Afghanistan. And the Taliban are happy to help.

I'd like to extend the benefit of the doubt and be a bit charitable here, but I'm simply not seeing it. Afghanistan wasn't exactly a peaceful garden of earthly delights when the American-backed government was running it. Under the control of the Taliban, it's been a calamity. It's difficult to imagine anyone willingly going there who isn't either a humanitarian aid worker or a mercenary. Perhaps the only less desirable destination might be a hotel in Haiti operated by a cannibal. And yet the Taliban claim to have registered more than 7,000 foreign tourists as guests last year, a sharp increase from the 691 they had in 2021. (Those figures can't be independently verified.)

If you're a man (or a lesbian, I suppose) would you want to take your girlfriend or wife on a vacation to a place run by the Taliban? Even more to the point, if you are a woman would you want to go on your own? The Taliban have been internationally condemned for their treatment of women and girls. However, the nascent Taliban Board of Tourism (also known as the Tourism Directorate in Kabul) seems to have anticipated that problem and tried to address it. Recently, the country’s only five-star hotel, the Serena, has reopened its women’s spa and salon for foreign females. Note the phrase "foreign females." They are checking the passports of all female guests to ensure they are foreigners. Any woman with a passport saying she was born in Afghanistan will be turned away. (And probably beaten.)

The AP's efforts to promote this concept fall a bit flat. They write about "the bragging rights that come with vacationing in an unusual destination." I suppose that's one way to put it. Another way would involve the bragging rights that come with surviving in a very dangerous place. And yet, people do seem to be coming. The head of the Tourism Directorate claims that the largest number of tourists have been coming from China. They are attracted by the close proximity of Afghanistan and the low prices. It also probably doesn't hurt that China has bought up massive amounts of Afghanistan's mineral rights and is providing a lot of jobs, though they barely pay slave wages.

Even if you could be assured some relative level of safety during your visit, would any of you really be comfortable handing over your vacation dollars to a group with such a dismal human rights record? Would you want to fund the same people who killed so many Americans and our allies over the years of the war? The State Department still lists Afghanistan on its Do Not Travel list, citing terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and crime. Afghanistan can't even issue you a valid travel visa because the Taliban isn't recognized as the legitimate government of the country by almost anyone. Everyone is free to do as they wish, of course, but if you're booking your next vacation in Kabul, I really have to question your decision-making skills.