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Saturday, September 11, 2004
Iranians Rue Loss of Lucrative Foreign Tourist Business
September 11, 2004
The Financial Times
Gareth Smyth
The 17th century Naghsh-e Jahan square in Isfahan is one of the splendours of the world. Its fountains and gardens lure visitors to the stunning blue tilework of the Imam and Sheikh Lotfallah mosques, pre-eminent examples of Islamic architecture.
For a country with Iran's attractions - from Isfahan, 350km south of Tehran, to the 4,000-year-old remains at Persepolis, from the 1,500km Gulf coastline to northern mountains rising to 5,000m - tourist numbers are low.
Government figures for visitors mix tourists and others, giving a total of around 1m people for 2003 spending $900m (€740m, £500m), but private operators say there are no more than 300,000 tourists a year.
A growing proportion of these are Arabs, who have replaced European visitors put off Iran by violence in the region in recent years.
Just five minutes' walk from the Naghsh-e Jahan square, the mid-range Sadaf hotel is packed with Bahrainis.
"Many more Arabs have been coming, since they don't feel welcome in Europe with all the suspicion of Arabs since September 11," says Morteza Naderi, the general manager. "Ninety-five per cent of guests in our hotel are now Arabs."
These are not the rich Saudis and Kuwaitis who flock to Lebanon in the summer for the sea, glitzy shops, casino and dancing girls. Most Arab visitors to Iran are devout Shia Muslims who share their faith with the majority of Iranians.
"They go to Mashad for pilgrimage [to the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam] and they come to Isfahan for shopping," says Mr Naderi.
Iranians have mixed feelings about the growth in Arab tourism, for while the business is welcome, there are long-standing tensions between the two peoples.
"There are many cultural differences," says one hotelier.
While Iran adopted Islam from conquering Arab armies in the century after the prophet Mohammad's death in 632, Iranians waged a long and successful struggle to retain their culture and language. Some of Iran's greatest poets poked fun at the Arabs' desert ways.
Today, many Iranians pine for the European, American and Asian visitors who have been put off in recent years by the apparent dangers of the Middle East. Isfahan's up-market Abbasi hotel, once beloved by Europeans, has many empty rooms.
"Most countries have recovered from the downturn after September 11, but unfortunately for us, there was the war in Afghanistan and now Iraq," says Ebrahim Pourfaraj, manager of the Tehran-based Pasargad Tours. "People still confuse Iran with Iraq."
Private-sector operators and government officials agree that Iran's image is a deterrent. "The propaganda against us is very powerful," says Ali Hashemi, deputy head of the state Tourism Organisation.
But recognising the industry's potential, the government has drawn up a plan for improvements. "We need better facilities - hotels, transport - and more effective procedures for issuing visas," says Mr Hashemi. "We have already abolished the higher fees once charged to foreigners for entering sites."
Iran's poor banking facilities are a practical problem. Without widespread use of credit cards and no ATM access to overseas accounts, tourists lack cashflow. Schemes for tourists to acquire temporary debit cards on arrival at the airport have had limited success, as retailers and hotels lack the means to process them.
This is a pity for the carpet-sellers, as today's European visitors to Iran tend to be older and richer than the backpackers who roamed the Silk Road in the days before Iran's 1979 revolution.
Such visitors are not deterred, says Mr Pourfaraj, by Iran's ban on alcohol nor by a dress code requiring women to cover their hair and body contours.
link to original article
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