Ankara, May 22, IRNA A top Iranian tourism official here Wednesday evening made a package of proposals aimed at attracting Turkish tourists to visit the natural and monumental attractions of their eastern neighbor.Iranian Deputy Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Chief Morteza Rahmani made the proposals in a meeting with head of Turkeys Travel Agencies Syndicate Ulu Soy, asking for inclusion of Iran in that syndicates tourism package to balance bilateral travelling industry.
The Iranian official made the proposal Wednesday evening at Turkeys Travel Agencies Syndicate in the presence of the Turkish travel agencies managing directors, inviting them to have an active participation at the 2014 Tehran International Tourism Exhibition which will be held in winter.
He also proposed that a group of representatives of the Iranian tourism agencies would visit Turkey to introduce their programs in the field of attracting tourists from Turkey and also invited the Turkish media reporters to visit Iran and report about the tourism attractions of our country.
Rahmani also asked for establishment of a joint working commission aimed at devising shared tourism programs.
The head of Turkeys Tourism Agencies Syndicate, too, for his part in the meeting welcomed the Iranian officials proposals and announced that syndicates readiness for forwarding Turkish tourists to Iran, welcoming signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the private sector Iranian tourism agencies.
He reiterated that during the course of the current year 16 million Turk tourists will travel inside Turkey and abroad, adding that Iran must gain a special share of that number of tourists.
The landscape of Iran is diverse, providing a range of activities from hiking and skiing in the Elburz Mountains, to beach holidays by the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.
During the past five years a number of tourism-friendly infrastructure projects have been undertaken on the Persian Gulf island of Kish, which at present attracts around 1m visitors per year, the majority of whom are Iranian.
Before the Iranian revolution, tourism was characterized by significant numbers of visitors traveling to Iran for its diverse attractions, boasting cultural splendors and a diverse and beautiful landscape suitable for a range of activities. Tourism declined dramatically during the IranIraq War in the 1980s.
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the majority of foreign visitors to Iran have been religious pilgrims and businesspeople.
Official figures do not distinguish between those travelling to Iran for business and those coming for pleasure, and they also include a large number of diaspora Iranians returning to visit their families in Iran or making pilgrimages to holy Shia sites near Mashhad and elsewhere.
Domestic tourism in Iran is one of the largest in the world. Despite the international tensions, the government continues to project strong rises in visitor numbers and tourism revenue for the foreseeable future, and to talk of projects to build an additional 100 hotels, for example, to expand its currently limited stock.
In 2011, the number of foreign tourists in Iran reached 3 million, contributing more than $2 billion to the national economy. The strong devaluation of the Iranian rial since early 2012 is also a positive element for tourism in Iran.
By IRNA
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