www.tehrantimes.com The Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization Francesco Frangialli has praised the overall "positive" trend in Iran's tourism sector over the past year. Speaking with IRNA on the sidelines of Berlin's ITB tourism and travel fair, Frangialli said, "Based upon our information, the results of Iranian tourism are rather positive over the past year. There has been a strong increase in the number of tourists."
"However for the time being, it's still too limited to regional tourism and I hope that tourists from more distant parts of the world will visit Iran in the future," he added.
Pointing to Iran's "enormous potential" in the tourism sector, Frangialli said his organization had prepared a master plan several years ago for improving Iran's tourism industry.
"The master plan is not fully implemented and we hope the new Iranian government will resume the implementation of the master plan. Part of the master plan has been implemented but still a lot needs to be done," Frangialli stressed. The WTO chief said his organization was ready to assist Iran's tourism industry in "developing marketing capacities and promotional techniques."
Referring to the outcome of his talk with Iranian tourism officials on the sidelines of the ITB, Frangialli pointed to plans for an international conference on tourism and handicraft, due to take place in Tehran in mid-May. |