BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Of all the frustrating jobs in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion four years ago, imagine the frustration of a man trying to entice tourists to visit here.

"It should be fun, but so far there is no fun," lamented the Iraqi tourism board director, 46-year-old Hamoud Mohsen al-Yacoubi. "When I came to this job I had black hair; now it is gray."

His office sends out promotional magazines to be displayed and distributed by Iraq's embassies abroad. And there is something to sell -- Iraq can boast of thousands of sites with historical, religious and cultural importance.

Of course, the biggest obstacle is the lack of security, the fact that in most of Iraq there's a good chance that Western sightseers would be kidnapped or killed by insurgents or sectarian death squads.

Then there is the obsolete, damaged and investment-starved tourism infrastructure of hotels and airports and poorly trained workers.

But worst of all, the chaos that makes tourism impossible is also destroying the thousands of ruins and historic sites that will be counted on someday to draw visitors.

"Tourism is a gold mine that could be better than the oil," al-Yacoubi said.

Officials note that ethnic Kurdish areas in the north are probably safe enough for visitors, as could be some locations in the south, though the air and land routes to reach those areas are inconvenient or unreliable.

The bulk of foreigners making pleasure trips to Iraq are Shiite pilgrims, mostly Iranians but including Afghans and Pakistanis, who travel to shrines in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

About 350,000 made the trip last year, said tourism ministry spokesman Abdel Zahra al-Talaqani. They were motivated by religious zeal and willingness to be martyred -- not exactly the way for Iraqi officials to create buzz for Westerners choosing summer vacations.

Iraqis such as Raad al-Wali might not be able to wait much longer. He owns a clothing store in Baghdad's Babylon Hotel, a high-rise fronted by gaudy blue arches replicating the Ishtar Gate and golden lion statues of ancient Babylon.

The hotel is usually near empty. Al-Wali has owned the store for 10 years. He sells baseball caps emblazoned with the Iraqi flag, "Baghdad" and "Tomorrow Will Be Better" in English. But he says he cannot pay his rent anymore and might soon close.

"Tourists would be a target for terrorists," he said. "I have a 1 percent hope that maybe, after two or three years," security will improve.

In the 1970s, Iraq drew tourists from around the region and Europe. A few shops in Baghdad still sell the old postcards and guidebooks.

There was a time when the country had tourism offices around the world. But the flow of visitors dried up with Saddam Hussein's repressive regime and the international sanctions intended to punish it.

Two colleges produce tourism workers, but they teach outdated practices, said al-Yacoubi, a former history professor and tire factory manager who worked in the Iraqi prime minister's office until he was tapped for the tourism post two years ago.

Iraq is home to the ruins of Babylon, including its famed hanging gardens. Archaeologists reacted with alarm when the site was damaged by Americans building a military base there after the 2003 invasion.

Ruins in Ur, in southern Iraq, mark the birthplace of Abraham, who is considered a patriarch by Jews, Christians and Muslims. One tourist who never got there before his death in 2005 was Pope John Paul II, who had sought to make a pilgrimage to the site.

In the north, the 5,000-year-old Assyrian empire lies in ruins near the city of Mosul.

Some of Iraq's sites, like the spiral minaret in war-torn Samarra or Babylon's famous lion statues, form images known worldwide even among those who don't know their origins.

Iraqi officials say there are about 12,500 archeological sites across the country. The ministry has only about 1,500 guards to protect them. Looting gangs often outgun that small force.

Elizabeth C. Stone, a Mesopotamian archaeologist at Stony Brook State University of New York, has viewed satellite imagery that shows Iraqi sites riddled with holes dug by thieves. In one case, thieves apparently bulldozed earth into a dump truck and slowly dropped the load while looters sifted for antiquities.

She said archaeologists haven't been able to work regularly in Iraq since the late 1980s.

"There's not the same kind of young generation focused on Iraq as there used to be, for obvious reasons that they haven't been able to go there," she said.

Baghdad's archaeological museum, which could have held one of the world's great collections, was looted by mobs as U.S. troops occupied the city in the days after the fall of Saddam. The museum is closed and the remaining pieces are sealed in a vault. Jordan and Syria hold about 4,000 artifacts they have confiscated from smugglers entering from Iraq.

"As an Iraqi I would like to keep my antiquities in Iraq," said tourism ministry spokesman al-Talaqani. "Antiquities are our identity."

And they want people to visit them.