Baku, Azerbaijan, June 10
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The handicrafts industry could create 250,000 jobs in Iran annually, Iranian First Vice-President Es'haq Jahangiri said.
Without the need to make huge investments, the handicrafts sector has a potential to create 250,000 jobs in the country per year, Iran's IRIB quoted Jahangiri as saying on June 10.
The administration pays special attention to the promotion of tourism and is resolved to remove problems in this sector, he added.
In May, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced that the number of foreign tourists who visited Iran in the last two months indicates a three-time increase compared to the same period of the preceding year.
"Positive momentum has started in this area which will improve the employment rate in the country," Rouhani said.
He also said that private sector investments in the tourism sector will lead to even better results.
Among his first pledges after taking office in August last year, Rouhani said he plans to improve the quality of the tourism industry and draw more foreign travelers to Iran.
Rouhani has previously said that he hopes to attract 10 million international tourists each year.
Travel and tourism accounted for 6.3 percent of Iran's $482 billion economy in 2012, according to an estimate by the World Economic Forum in a report last year.
Masoud Soltanifar, Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), said on May 20 that Iran's share in world's total $1.25 trillion tourism industry is very little.
The country currently attracts predominantly medical and religious tourists, although this is all expected to change as Iran develops new relationships with foreign nations.
Edited by CN