The holy Shiite city of Najaf in central Iraq, home to the shrine of a revered cleric, is in the midst of a hotel building boom in a bid to dramatically ramp up the number of visiting pilgrims.

While thousands of mostly Iranian religious tourists already pass through Najaf everyday on what are marketed as nine-day tours of Iraq’s holy Shiite sites, hoteliers and business groups in the city expect hotel capacity, currently at breaking point, to double in the next three years.

“Even if we multiplied the number of hotels in Najaf by 10 times, it would not be enough!” said Farhan Shibli, who already owns two hotels in the city and is building another.

“It is a great opportunity for investors, a golden chance – these two cities, Najaf and Karbala, are ripe for investment in hotels,” he added, referring to another holy Shiite shrine city close to Najaf.

The chamber of commerce in Najaf, about 150 kilometres south of Baghdad, estimates about 3,500 pilgrims arrive every day in the city of just 500,000 inhabitants, the vast majority of them from neighbouring Iran.

The tourists are mostly on package tours where they spend three days in Najaf principally to visit the shrine of Imam Ali, a seventh century Muslim leader, and three days in Karbala and Baghdad respectively.

Karbala, which has a population of 630,000, is the home to shrines to Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, also revered among Shiites, while Baghdad houses a mausoleum to another such cleric, Imam Kadhim. The tour groups typically also make a day trip to Samarra, north of the capital, to visit the gold-domed Askari shrine there.

But Najaf’s 130 or so registered hotels are barely able to deal with the influx, to the point where 40-odd sub-standard establishments take in pilgrims, according to the chamber of commerce.

Zuheir Sharba, chairman of the chamber of commerce said: “If there are more rooms, more people will come. The problem is there is no additional capacity right now.”

Mr Sharba added: “Lots of hotels have rooms with four or five beds, but pilgrims who come don’t seem to care. They just want a place to sleep for the night.”

Shibli concurs, noting that religious tourists will pay money just to sleep in his hotels’ lobbies, while others will cram several people into individual rooms.