Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 31
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
A delegation of Turkish investors met with director of Iran's cultural heritage and tourism organization, Masoud Soltanifar, and voiced their readiness to invest in Iran's tourism sector.
The Turkish investors said they were particularly interested in building hotels in Iran, the IRNA news agency reported on August 31.
According to a crash program, the number of 4- and 5-star hotels in Iran should be increased by three-fold over the next ten years, Soltanifar said.
In May, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced that the number of foreign tourists who visited Iran in 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 previously said Iran 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.