Foreign Tourists Cancel Their Visits to Iran

Head of Iran Hoteliers Association says recent incidents in the country has made 85% of foreign tourists cancel their visits to Iran and occupancy ration of hotels has declined to below 20%.

Speaking to ILNA, Jamshid Hamzehzadeh said that any incident and unrests in the country directly has its impact on tourism industry, adding that Iran’s hoteliering industry has faced different crises since March 2019, adding that flood and heavy raining, rise in gasoline price, pandemic and recent unrests in the country have inflicted heavy damages on the national tourism industry.

He went on to say that the average occupancy ratio of hotels in the country has fallen to below 20% and according to reports many hotel owners cannot afford to cover the costs and they have to spend from their own pockets and even some of them have faced in paying the salary of their staff. He reiterated that if this condition continues, hotel owners may dismiss their staff like what they did during the pandemic.

On the success of attracting foreign tourists, he said that recent incidents in the country has led to decline in the visits of foreign tourists and 85% of foreign tourists mainly from Europe, the U.S. and Asia have canceled their visits and some foreign tourists intended to pay a visit after staying in Qatar for the World Cup and they also changed their minds.

Hamzehzadeh added that most of Iranian hotels have standard certificates and some are on the verge of getting it and therefore Iranian hotels have no certain problem regarding standards.

On the change of rate of rooms, he said that it changes based on the inflation rate and the tourism ministry in cooperation with the association fix the rate rooms in the hotels.

Meanwhile Head of Union of Inns Mr Shahrokh Mohammadzadeh, for his part, said that the number of travelers in Tehran has decreased by 50% and people’s economic condition has moved in a direction that people do not tend to travel.

He blamed the rise in price of laundering, refrigerator and TV for the rise in the room rate, adding that owners of inns and motels have tried to boost their services in the level of two-star hotels. - Iran News