Tourism is big business in Iran. Iran is a country of vast diversity, great natural beauty and numerous heritage sites from ancient times.
Sitting on the Silk Road, the ancient connection gateway between west and east has resulted in the creation of a unique culture with a combination of western and eastern values. Iran is home to a dozen cultures, traditions, ethnicities, and languages with a high potential in tourism attractions.
Seeing the significant rise of tourists booking Iran even before the nuclear deal was signed, shows Iran’s popularity.
Ali Vaghefi, an expert of the Iran travel industry and Vice President and cofounder of the Iranian Tour Operators Association, believes the political decisions by President Hassan Rouhani which led into lifting sanctions, brought the golden age of the tourism industry to the Islamic Republic.
With new moderate policies, the world has changed its view about Iran, and Iranian people have more support for their government.
“Our friendly connection with the world will ease the ground for those that want to travel to Iran. Iran is one of the world’s biggest untapped tourist destinations having 19 UNESCO world heritage sites and fascinating natural attractions.
Since the country has been out of the international investment list its market has a great potential for investors in many different fields including hospitality and aviation.
Proper training is important to attract new technologies and educational methods to the country.
All business investors and companies can obtain the most up to dated information about Iran’s economic situation and its future outlook from Iranian tour operator companies.” said Mr. Vaghefi.
Ali Vaghefi as a successful business man and expert in incoming tours to Iran since 1990 introduces new solution to face Iran’s infrastructural shortages in the tourism industry.
“Spring and fall season are the times that we have a rush in tourist arrivals. In order to handle this upsurge Iran needs to upgrade its infrastructures as fast as possible.
We need to triple the number of our four and five stars hotels. Leading tour operators like us decided to create new products that will bring in use all the aspects of Iran’s unique attractions during the winter and also in summertime.”
Iran has a large area representing a great variation of climate and biodiversity. In winter our travelers can drive to the north of Tehran for skiing in Shemshak or take a flight to the southern islands at the Persian Gulf. There they can enjoy jet skis and many other water activities.
Also tourists have the option of safari tours in the desert and can njoy camel riding, off-roading, sand boarding, trekking in the desert, and star gazing at night.
At the end Mr. Vaghefi said about the importance of media and its high influence on Iran tourism industry.
“Despite the warnings on travelling to Iran, all those who chose to experience this country have so many stories to tell about the warm and special welcomes they received by the Iranian people. This is a world away of what the media says about Iran.
We are privileged by having a powerful national protection that has made Iran the safest country in the region and our tourists feel absolutely secure during their stay. After the nuclear deal I have seen news agencies or magazines that had never talked about Iran before and are promoting Iran as one of the top destinations.
Iran became the number one destination for National Geographic Traveler’s cool list of 2016, best places to travel in 2016 by Travel + Leisure, one of the top 16 destinations on CNN list, and many more.”
Ali Vaghefi said he is so glad to see all the media who introduced Iran as an unsafe destination and tried to convince everyone to not travel to our country have changed their view and put Iran in their top destination list for 2016.”
