Foreign Tourists Heading to Iran; 'Hotels Fully Booked Until 2016'

Ebrahim Pourfaraj, the head of Iran's Tour Operators Association, has stated that four and five-star hotels in five main tourist cities of Iran are fully booked by foreign tourists until next year. According to Mehr News Agency, Mr. Pourfaraj said on August 10: 'In Tehran, Isfahan, Yazd, and Shiraz, there are no vacancies in four and five-star hotels until 2016. In a city like Ahvaz, there is only one good four-star hotel, which is also booked. This is because the number of incoming foreign tourists to Iran has increased compared to previous years.' He also mentioned that there are not enough hotels for tourists and that correspondence has been made to ensure that 'no festival is held in Isfahan in October, as it is the peak season for foreign tourists, and hotels are fully booked. Therefore, festivals such as the children's film festival can be postponed to another time.' Mr. Pourfaraj stated: 'We are currently facing a shortage of suitable hotels in the country. It takes three years to build a hotel. We need to start the work, allocate special budgets for it, and call for investment in hotel construction.' According to a report previously published by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), five-star hotels, which are most utilized in Iran's foreign tourism, have the least number of units. This report counted 23 five-star hotels across the country, with 4,756 rooms and 10,206 beds. However, according to statistics provided by the Iranian Hotel Association, including free zone hotels, the number of five-star hotels in the country is recorded as 27 units. Meanwhile, the main problem in examining tourism-related issues and services in Iran is the lack of reliable and valid statistics. For example, the website of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization has various sections in the active areas of this organization, but no precise statistics are mentioned, and hotels are not classified by grade. This difference and ambiguity are also evident in other tourism-related sources, as the website of the Iranian Tour Operators Association, which Mr. Pourfaraj is responsible for, does not have an independent section on this matter, and its statistics are not up to date. According to the statistics provided on the Iranian Hospitality website, in Yazd, only two five-star hotels and six four-star hotels are registered. In Ahvaz, there is one five-star hotel and two four-star hotels, and in Shiraz, six four-star hotels and three five-star hotels are registered. Evaluating hotel prices in Iran is also a challenging task as most statistical websites do not provide accurate prices, and prices vary for foreign tourists. The Alef website previously reported: 'The high prices of hotels in the country have led to the figure of 215,419 beds, which is not particularly significant, especially for a country that reports millions of domestic and foreign trips and has a vision to attract 20 million foreign tourists, remaining empty up to 50% in many seasons of the year.'