Tourism in Iran: capacity, revenue, jobs and what never got done

Why tourism and travel?

If Saadi were here, in answer to this question he would say: one must travel much until the raw becomes ripe. Saadi, it seems, understood that tourism is not only recreation and has other aspects as well. Tourism today is an industry. It is a recreational-commercial industry. Tourists sometimes for recreation and sometimes also for trade and health and … go from one place to another.

Iran in the field of tourism is potentially a rival to all the countries of the world. Indeed Isfahan competes with half the world and the rest of Iran with the other half of the world. That is, if a person wants to travel for trade and after their trade be immersed in nature and finally be quenched from the springs of spirituality, it is enough to come to Iran. If they were ill or became ill, well-equipped hospitals in Iran are not few. So any sighted person simply understands that Iran has the capacity to answer all travel purposes. But what is the situation? Does anyone come to Iran? If they come, how much revenue does Iran have from this path? Is Iran's revenue little or much?

How much revenue can one have from tourism in Iran and the world?

The number of Iran's tourists relative to the country's capacities is very small. For example, in 1398 (2019/20), 8 million and 500 thousand foreign tourists visited Iran. Turkey annually has nearly 45 million tourists and the UAE nearly 16 million tourists. By comparing Iran with neighboring and non-neighboring countries one can simply understand that Iran has fallen behind the tourism caravan. For example, the United States had 195 billion dollars, Turkey 41 billion dollars and the UAE 38 billion dollars in 2019 from tourism. Where is Iran? A mere 6 billion dollars is Iran's share. By the way, Iran's oil revenue in this year was also 8 billion dollars.

Truly, does Iran not have tourist-receiving capacity? What do the others have?

Turkey has 3, Iran 4 and the United States 5 climates. In the world too there are 5 climates. Iran and the United States have 24 sites registered as UNESCO World Heritage and Turkey 16 sites. Also, Iran is probably a more suitable place for religious tourism than the United States or Turkey! About historical capacities, too, it is better that we not talk at all. But there was no talk of the rival UAE. The UAE has only one climate, and that is desert. It is either winter or summer and it holds only one of UNESCO's world heritages. Then it has 16 million tourists and 38 billion dollars of revenue.

Employment in Iran's tourism

If Iranians all together migrated to China, they could collectively be employed in the tourism sector, because China has 80 million employed in the tourism sector. Tourism provides numerous platforms for creating employment. It was only a few years ago that ecolodge tourism got under way in Iran and since then a large number of households have become occupied in this part of tourism. The number of Iranians employed in the tourism sector in the past two decades has increased by nearly 92 percent. At the beginning of the 80s, 900 thousand people were occupied in this sector and this number reached 1 million and 730 thousand people in 1398 (2019/20).

The number of tourism employed has almost doubled, but because of Iran's population increase of almost 15 million in these years, the share of those employed in the tourism sector has grown by only 2 percent. At present 7/3 percent of employed Iranians earn their living from the tourism sector.

The employment ratio in Iran's tourism sector

• You can also see this statistic in the Namafar infographic section.

What have we done for tourism?

It is not a lie if we say that nothing has been done for Iran's tourism. Turning a threat into an opportunity is a cliché we have heard a lot, but at least in the field of tourism one can boldly say that many opportunities have also been turned into threats. Ferdowsi once said: "See what you sow, for that you shall reap." In Iran if investment is made in tourism it will certainly be high-yield. Various countries of the world have done this. They have also gotten results. The United States invested 209 billion dollars and had 195 billion dollars of revenue. Japan invested 40 billion dollars and 47 billion dollars also accrued to it. But in Iran in 1398 (2019/20), only 90 billion tomans was invested in the "program to attract inbound tourists to the country"! May God bless that same 6/3 billion dollars that the country obtained.

Let it not be too late!

Iran's tourism needs care. Thought and reflection and a little resolve too are needed so that a spark of life is breathed into tourism. Iran now is young and beautiful, but has beauty been faithful to anyone? Iran's beauty too may one day disappear or at least diminish. Iran now has 4 seasons, but in the future how is it? God knows, and his scientists. Iran now, inch by inch, is a manifestation of history, but what does the future look like? Again we do not know. Perhaps a flood came and washed Persepolis away. Perhaps history was repeated and they set it on fire.

That is, is it not possible? This too is Ilchi Garden, the Russians' former embassy in the Tehran bazaar, where Griboyedov, the Tsar's rude envoy, was killed after the ominous Turkmenchay, and now it is a heap of dust. At least if it were standing it would serve for showing off and boasting. All these ifs and buts show that this very day a thought must be given to tourism. But not as mere recreation, rather as an industry.

It is obvious that Iran can be one of the world's largest tourism destinations. The World Economic Forum in a report has announced that Iran is the world's most competitive country in tourism in terms of price. Complete security, pristine geography, precious history and many other factors are in place for Iran to attain its true place. In the hope that one day Iran will be tourists from end to end.

In closing, too, if you have a suggestion for the boom of tourism, write it below this same post; perhaps someone will see it.

You can also read this piece and other pieces on Namafar's Virgool.

Postscript:

Author: Mohammad Maleki

Data compilation: Pouria Ganji

Data source: the report "Tourism status map" written by Pouria Ganji and the tourism-sector statistics on the Namafar site.