Taleb Rifai made the comments about Iran at ITB Berlin, World’s biggest travel fair, which was held from March 5 to 8 in Germany, Reuters reported.
He said that Iranians face some challenges, especially in rebuilding their image and how they appeal to others, adding he welcomed moves to introduce visas on arrival for around 27 countries.
Iranian businessman Cyrus Etemadi has had a stand at Berlin’s ITB travel trade fair every year for more than 20 years, even when tension with the West meant few tourists visited the former ancient kingdom of Persia.
Etemadi, now with a firm of 10 people, organized trips for about 600 guests last year. "I think this year it will be more than 1,000. But that is still a long way from 10,000.”
Iran made it onto the top destination lists of major publications such as The Financial Times and The Guardian last year thanks to sights that include 2,500-year-old ruins at Persepolis near Shiraz and 16th-century Islamic architectural gems in Isfahan.
Rifai, Etemadi and others at the ITB said there were early positive signs for tourism as Iran becomes more open and President Rouhani’s administration aims to double annual income from it to $10 billion.
The number of international tourists arriving in Iran jumped 24 percent to about 4.8 million in 2013, according to the UNWTO. Figures for 2014 are not yet available, Tehran Times reported.
Travel and tourism directly accounted for about 2.2 percent of Iran’s GDP in 2013. The sector’s contribution to the economy is expected to grow by an average 5.7 percent per year through 2024, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Reflecting its ambition to grow the sector, Iran booked an entire hall at the ITB for the first time this year, highlighting its cultural heritage, 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites and picturesque landscapes ranging from mountains to deserts and coastal plains.
"You can see the massive uplift in tourism that occurred in other countries such as Myanmar when they came in from the cold,” said Caroline Bremner, head of tourism and travel research at Euromonitor.
More tours and flights
German tour operator Gebeco, which focuses on students and adventure tours, tripled its Iran offering this year and added a further 15 percent after trips sold out.
Iranian tour operator Pasargad Tours, which organizes trips for about 10,000 to 12,000 travelers per year, says it is seeing a renaissance of demand for cultural travel.
"Business has been booming in the past two years,” said Karan Jami, marketing executive at Pasargad, saying trips were overbooked for 2015 and 2016.
German airline Germania now offers twice-weekly flights to Tehran from Duesseldorf and Berlin. Late last month, it launched a route from Hamburg to Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city and home to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS).
"There some green shoots going on in Iran, so it seems to make sense to fly there,” Germania CEO Karsten Balke said, adding he was also banking on demand from Iranians traveling to Germany to visit relatives.
The organizers of the ITB trade fair, which has more than 10,000 exhibitors from 186 countries, also said they were interested in having Iran as its official partner country.
Etihad Airways will increase its flights between Abu Dhabi and Tehran, from three flights a week to a daily service, beginning on April 15, 2015.
The Airbus A320 Tehran service, which started in December 2006, provides 136 seats each way in a two cabin configuration, with 16 Business Class seats and 120 Economy Class seats.
Adding 1,088 new seats per week to the route, the additional Tehran flights will enable Etihad Airways to provide its guests with more choice and greater flexibility when travelling between Abu Dhabi and Tehran.
Daily Tehran flight operations will allow the Iranian capital to gain two-way connectivity to almost 50 markets on Etihad Airways’ global network.
Kevin Knight, Etihad Airways’ Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, said: "We have been keen to increase the Tehran service to daily operations for some time and we’re delighted to make that move now ahead of the summer season.
"The expanded schedule will increase travel options for Iranian passengers visiting the UAE, as well as those wishing to access Etihad Airways’ global flight network, particularly cities like Los Angeles and others in the United States.”
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