Tourism Infrastructure, Development and News

[avicenna]

I would say Iran is semi-developed, yes.

I'm pretty sure you would need a visa, but you should double check with someone else.

Iran is rather cheap. At least for a foreigner with dollars and euros.

Go and enjoy Iran!

[Persan]

Officially, Iran is a Third World country although a fairly advanced Third World country. Many prefer the term "developing" country. I'd say Iran is in the upper end of the "developing" category.

Visit Iran with your Australian passport. It'll be easier to get a visa.

[Rahmani]

@Persan

The term "Third World country" is from the cold-war erea, when from a western-point of view there where 3 worlds:

1 - Capitalisme
2 - Communisme
3 - Others

Countries such as the UAE, Qater and Singapore are labled "3rd world, but have one of the highest GDP per capita in the world. Unfortunatly, most of the so called 3rd world are underdeveloped compared to some parts of Europe.

The 3 worlds
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...worlds_map.svg

p.s You can stay in Iran for 1 week without prior Visa. Just need to pay 50USD and fill in a form when you arive.

[shugs]

Dutch backpacker defies politics to invest in Iran -interesting read

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Sebastian Straten is going against the flow. As some Western corporations pack up and mothball projects in Iran under pressure of sanctions, the entrepreneurial Dutchman is preparing for the day when tourists flock to the Islamic state.

His guest house business -- a joint venture with an Iranian partner which was dreamed up during a backpacking holiday three years ago -- may be an unlikely embryo for a fortune.

But it serves to highlight the potential opportunities companies in the West are passing up to Asian rivals happy to do business with a country that outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush included in his world view of an "axis of evil."

Straten is developing a small-scale hotels venture in the central city of Yazd, renowned for its labyrinth of lanes between old mudbrick buildings and 'windcatcher' towers designed to cool houses in the desert heat.

He aims to expand to the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Qazvin, opening more hotels on the Silk Road, an ancient trade route that linked China with the Middle East and Europe.

Famous tourist sights in Iran include 2,500-year-old ruins at Persepolis near Shiraz and 16th-century Islamic architectural gems in Isfahan. Visitors to the Middle Eastern country can also enjoy skiing, diving and nature.

Straten himself first came to the Islamic Republic as a tourist in 2005: he is not blind to the risks but is nonetheless confident his business will eventually pay off.

"Maybe I'm crazy," said Straten, who quit as product manager at a privately owned pharmaceutical firm to go backpacking, and is now obsessed by the potential of the two small hotels he and his Iranian partner Ali Montazer Ghaem currently own.

"I wouldn't do this if I did not have a very different thinking from other people," the 35-year-old said. "Everything I have, everything I am, everything I believe in, is in this country. It is 100 percent commitment."

"IMPOSSIBLY DIFFICULT"

While Straten is moving in, there are plenty of examples of large European companies going the other way, even though their governments have not followed the United States in formally banning them from investing in Iran.

Washington is spearheading a drive to isolate Tehran over nuclear work it suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Iran rejects, and is putting pressure on businesses to stay away.

France's Total and Royal Dutch Shell are two energy giants which are freezing or scrapping plans for investments worth billions of dollars. Banks such as London-based HSBC and Germany's Deutsche Bank have halted Iran-linked transactions.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) says tension over Iran's nuclear program, which has drawn three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006, is a barrier to foreign investment flows into both its hydrocarbon and non-oil industries.

Those who do take the plunge also find themselves hampered by Iranian red tape, a long-standing grumble of those companies that have invested in the past.

Foreign firms remain "vulnerable to the vagaries of the judicial system which has proven to be slow moving, opaque and suggestible," the EIU said in its July report.

Phil Priestley, a senior risk analyst at Merchant International Group, a strategic risk consultancy based in London, said Iran would remain a high-risk investment destination for the foreseeable future.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nationalist economic policies "favor 'self-reliance' over foreign capital and expertise, providing little incentive for foreign investors to tackle the byzantine regulatory environment," he said.

But as Europeans have pulled out, companies from Asia are readily stepping into the breach. Chinese oil refiner Sinopec signed a deal last December to invest $2 billion in Iran's Yadavaran oil field and Malaysian firm SKS Development has a multi-billion-dollar gas development contract.

Whatever the political and bureaucratic obstacles, a market of 70 million and a wealth of natural resources make Iran difficult to ignore.

It is still the world's fourth-largest oil exporter and boasts the second-biggest reserves of natural gas after Russia.

"It is almost impossibly difficult ... and it is impossible to walk away," said one senior official at a Western firm that has invested in Iran, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the high sensitivity of appearing to criticize the country.

BANKING PROBLEMS

According to Straten, Iranians don't take too kindly to investors who walk away but hope to return when the climate improves.

"Iranians are very proud people. Once you cut the relationship with an Iranian, he will not easily forget this," he said. "We Europeans are losing ... the battle for investment in Iran, if we are not careful."

His guiding principle is simple: it is better to be among the first foreigners investing in Iran's nascent tourism industry than a latecomer in nearby Dubai, the Gulf's commercial hub -- especially during a financial crisis.

And unlike Western multinationals which occasionally have to sacrifice promising markets to the prevailing political agenda, Straten is able to focus closely on his goal.

Even so, it took him six months to obtain the necessary investment license allowing him to plow up to 500,000 euros ($661,000) into his business over five years. But he has praise for Iranian law that protects foreign investments and says the authorities were supportive of his plans.

The obstacles facing his hotels business had more to do with Western financial institutions cutting ties with Iran as a result of U.S. pressure, forcing him to switch banks.

"I'm limited in my business by my own bank, which is not something you would expect," Straten said. "It is more the outside difficulties I encounter than any difficulties in Iran."

Investors in Iran need to find reliable local partners to operate successfully in the country, Straten said.

"Even if you have a lot of money and a lot of contacts ... it is crazy to think that you can succeed in Iran without a good local partnership."

Straten's own chances of developing a successful hotels business are enhanced by the fact that Iran sees tourism as a priority and wants to invest more than $30 billion in the sector over the next two decades, according to Iranian media.

The eventual success of such plans, however, may depend not just on an end to sanctions but also to a longer-term change in attitudes toward Iran. Observers say growth will otherwise continue to be hampered by a black-and-white image of Iran as a hardline Islamic state hostile to the West.

(Editing by Guy Dresser and Sara Ledwith)

Source: Reuters via Yahoo

[Persan]

Wouldn't this be better in the TOURISM section?

[shugs]

See what happens when posting articles intoxicated at 2am

[Herbicide]

I met this guy in Tehran!
Thats him in the flip flops:

[Persan]

In Iran, open arms, rich history await intrepid Westerners
USA TODAY | November 06, 2008

TEHRAN — "Beyond our ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." — Rumi, 13th-century Persian poet

Bob Augustine's last encounter with Iran was on a Pan Am plane, a few days before Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control as architect of the country's fundamentalist Islamic revolution. He remembers the panicked faces as plainclothes security men yanked passengers off the jet just before takeoff, and the sobs of relief when their pilot announced they had cleared Iranian airspace. Thirty years later, the retired telecommunications executive from Bonita Springs, Fla., is back in the Axis of Evil — as a tourist.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

A very informative (and long) article. Worth a read.

[Rahmani]

They should start with making visa easer and allowing unmarried (according to islamic law)western people to get a hotel room together!

[TEHR_IR]

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/lin...8540181719.htm

Iran to participate in London WTM 2008

Some 15 Iranian tourism companies will participate in the WTM 2008 in London.

Iran's pavilion will cover an area of 150 square meters and will be decorated like ancient monuments of Iran.

Iranian tour and travel agencies, which will participated in this event, are going to promote their various tour packages to Iran.

Some 45,000 tourism experts from 202 countries will participate in the four-day event.

This event will be held from November 10-13 in Excel Exhibition Center in London.

[sinasina]

as long as there is bad publicity about iran, and strict entering : nothing will change

[TEHR_IR]

yes but that doesn't mean we must do nothig in our tourism sector! we must do things like this to show people that media is not always correct.

[69er]

why the fuck would anyone want to travel to iran, iam persian and i dont think i would want to visit that shit hole again, i went there for the last 3 years and everytime i realized how shit it really was, garbage country , horrible uneducated idiots and disgusting and dirty, not one spot of the city is clean, i hope obama sends a nuke

[Achzillian]

Originally Posted by 69er

why the fuck would anyone want to travel to iran, iam persian and i dont think i would want to visit that shit hole again, i went there for the last 3 years and everytime i realized how shit it really was, garbage country , horrible uneducated idiots and disgusting and dirty, not one spot of the city is clean, i hope obama sends a nuke

you are not a Iranian
because Iranians don't say such thinks about Iran
and i have been this year to Iran and it was great i have been to Isfahan Shiraz and many other places
its better than Europa because in Iran there are many history's left from 3000 years ago or 7000 years ago
I have never seen in Europa something that is 3000 years old

[TEHR_IR]

69erI have nothing against you but if you are Iranian I feel sorry for you that you have only eyes for bad things and BTW tehran is not the only place in Iran. and if obama do that we send you 10 back with our rackets beceause nowone must dare to touch our country!People like you must go and check things better out before say things like that.

[persian cat]

Originally Posted by 69er

why the fuck would anyone want to travel to iran, iam persian and i dont think i would want to visit that shit hole again, i went there for the last 3 years and everytime i realized how shit it really was, garbage country , horrible uneducated idiots and disgusting and dirty, not one spot of the city is clean, i hope obama sends a nuke

I pray every day to see people like you on the street.

[Persan]

Does anyone know if any foreign companies signed any deals to develop tourism sites in Iran during the recent tourism conference in Tehran?

[siyavosh2002]

WoW I'm Iranian and I would never wanna go to Iran as a tourist. I mean how can you even have fun in Iran? unless you're in love with ancient history or Persia then I don't see a way a, lets say, European or American tourist would have fun. I lived in Turkey for about 5 years and wow you have no idea what they have done to attract the tourist to their country. Amazing hotels and creative ways to attract tourists. Even if Iran was a free country who would wanna be laying on Iranian beaches? Persian Gulf is not like Mediterranean Sea. I mean Southern Iran is Super Hot! and other than Iranians themselves I don't think any one would like northern Iran because for Europeans that kindda environment is not new, that's how their countries are.

when you think about it there are many problems in Iran's way to become a Touristy country.

1. Transportation: don't even talk about Airplanes. Trains suck ass! Buses? not as bad as the other two but well drivers are impolite, people who work for the bus driver are perverts, the bus stops are dirty as fuck! everything has expired. If you wanna take your own car well you should be a professional rally driver in order to drive in Iran's roads.
2. Laws. Again we can't even talk about Iranian laws because we all know wtf is up in Iran. And lets say some branch in Iranians government says something, it takes centuries for other branches to start obeying the fuckin' law. They can't even work with each other and help their own citizens how can they help foreigners?
3. Culture. Even though many Iranians are not strict Muslims do you think they are ok with half naked girls on their beaches? you see 30 naked Europeans laying down on the beach and 300 people are watching them. I don't think that would be comfortable.
4. as someone earlier said, some Iranian cities look like shit! dirty! transportation inside the city sucks! I remember when I was in Iran and I tried to take the bus, holy shit! I was number 3 in the line before the bus arrived and number 300 after it arrived! everyone runs towards the bus, there are noooo lines or even if there are, who gives a fuck! imagine a British or German tourist try to take a bus in Iran lol.

I'm not saying it can't happen but it will take ages for Iran to attract tourists and with the current government, it can never happen.
billions and billions of dollars should be invested. so they should find investors who are willing to invest in something that may not have a profitable return for many years and since big investors need quick and big returns unless the government does the investment I don't think anyone else would do so.

[alitezar]

It's not all about having clubs, looking like Turkey or lay half- naked on the beaches, you can have so much fun by going to restaurants, very cool cafes in Tehran and chat with your friends, go to various shopping areas, take walks in lovely streets such as Vali Asr in Tehran, go to the mountains, Darband, Darakeh, museums, Parties and the least goes on.

What else do u want to do that you say you'd never want to go there??????

[Persan]

Even before the revolution when tourists could go to the beaches and drink, etc... a lot foreign tourists still visited the historic sites. Iran has the potential to attract millions of tourists, but the infrastructure and the hospitality services really need to improve. They need to build International standard hotels and improve VISA services for visitors.