Arab tourists flock to Iran

Western tourism to Iran dropped off after the US government's 'war on terror' began following the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. But a growing number of Arab visitors are now filling the gap.

'Around a third of tourists coming to Iran are now Arabs,' says Ebrahim Pourfaraj, manager of the Tehran-based Pasargad Tours. 'Recent figures show a 35 percent year-on-year increase in visitors, and this is mainly due to more Arabs coming.'

However, government numbers for visitors do not distinguish between tourists and others, giving a figure for 2003 of 1 million people spending $900 million. Private-sector operators say there are no more than 300,000 tourists.

Japanese like Iran

The biggest groups now appear to be the Japanese, who do not require visas, and Arabs. The growing trend of Arab visitors, say those in the industry, is clear.

'There have been many more Arabs coming since the 9/11,' says Morteza Naderi, general manager of the Sadaf hotel in Esfahan, Iran's capital under the Safavids. 'Ninety-five percent of our current visitors in the hotel are Arabs. They do not feel so welcome in Europe with all the checks since September 11th, so they come here.'

Most are Shi'ites from Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon who share their faith with the majority of Iranians, and they come for a mixture of reasons. 'They go to Mashad for pilgrimage [to the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shi'ite Imam] and then they come to Esfahan for shopping, relaxation and to visit the historical sites,' says Naderi.

In May, for the first time since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, 15 Iranian companies joined the Dubai Tourism Exhibition, and Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization this summer entered the Internet age with a website promoting the country (www.chtourism.ir). Iran has much to promote.

Few cities in the world can boast, as Esfahan can, a square like the Maidoun Naghsh-e Jahan, built in the early 17th century by Shah Abbas and whose fountains and gardens lead to the stunning blue tile-work and classical proportions of the Imam and Sheikh Lotfallah mosques, outstanding examples of Islamic architecture.

Iran also offers a 1,500 kilometre coastline, mountains rising to 5,000 metres and a variety of climates - from the lush humidity of the Caspian Sea to the austere central desert. The three kilometre long bazaar in Tabriz, in the mainly Azeri northwest, is claimed as the largest in the MiddleEast, and the nearby Lake Urmieh and the town of Sara'eyn boast health spas.

But the number of visitors for a country of 65 million people is low - at 300,000, less than 30 percent of those visiting Lebanon - and the reasons for this are clear. 'The industry remains beset by a strict social code, a shortage of adequate accommodation, bottlenecks in internal transportation and poor marketing,' concluded the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit in its 2004 survey of Iran.

The government has recently drawn up a strategy to deal with these problems. 'We need better facilities - hotels, transport - and better procedures for issuing visas,' says Ali Hashemi, deputy head of the state tourism organisation and nephew of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president.

'We have already abolished the higher fees once charged to foreigners for entering sites.' Private-sector operators estimate that 90 percent of the revenue from tourism ends up in government coffers. Iran's largely state-run, oil-fuelled economy has restricted opportunities for private businesses.

'The government's focus has been on oil, not tourism,' said Pourfaraj. 'Just compare Iran with Turkey, which has no oil. It's taken time for the government to realise that if we expand the industry, jobs will be created across the age ranges and from drivers up to managers.'

Cash only

Banking is a practical problem. While some carpet dealers in Esfahan now display Visa and MasterCard signs, even the most upmarket hotels insist on cash. Schemes for tourists to acquire temporary debit cards on arrival at the airport have had limited success.

'This is still the main problem,' says Pourfaraj. 'People see a carpet or some jewellery they want to buy at $3,000-4,000, but they have at most $1,000 in cash.'

Visitors who want to come to Iran are not deterred, say industry professionals, by Iran's ban on alcoholic drinks nor by the legal requirement for women to wear a hijab, introduced after the revolution. But those who - after a week or more in Iran's historical sites - are tempted by a few days at the seaside, notes Pourfaraj, are sometimes surprised to find beaches segregated between men and women.

Kish Island

The development of Kish Island as a special zone has proved a testing ground. Rezidor SAS became the first international hotel company to operate in Iran since the Revolution by agreeing to manage the 168-room Dariush Grand Hotel on the island.

But the prevalent mood among Iran's political elite remains one of self-reliance and keeping foreign investors at arm's length. Parliament, which has a strongly conservative majority, voted in September to curtail the state's ability to sign contracts with foreign companies, and deputies criticised agreements with Turkish firms to open a second cellular phone network and to operate Tehran's new international airport, which remains closed since Revolutionary Guards moved tanks onto the runway in May.

'We have to concentrate on what we do and hope the government eases up,' says one tour operator.