At the foot of Persepolis, busloads of foreign tourists gaze in awe at the ancient mud-brick ceremonial capital Iran hopes will be part of the rebirth of its tourism industry. Although decades of sanctions mean that the country’s hotels and infrastructure are not five-star quality, a tentative political thaw with the West is drawing visitors to Iranian attractions steeped in myth and legend.
Persepolis — a jewel of the first Persian empire whose palace and terraces took more than 100 years to build, starting under Darius the Great in 518 BC — is one of the highlights.
“Before coming to Iran I knew the vision of this country from the outside was very dark,” said Piotr Chwalba, from Poland, finally looking at Persepolis after thinking of visiting for years.
Photo: AFP
“A place like Iran has two sides: the one created by the media and the other version, the truth, where everyone helps you when you travel and everyone smiles at you. It’s great,” Chwalba said.
Sincere as such testimony is, a rise in visitors has more to do with politics than praise.
The prospects for tour operators were bleak until recently. The election last year of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his decision to restart negotiations with the US and other leading nations about Iran’s nuclear program has been a catalyst for the tourism industry.
Photo: AFP
While seeking to play host to international visitors, it also helps that his speeches do not tend to excoriate the West in the same manner as those of his predecessor, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Mr Rouhani’s demeanor, his smile, his positive interaction with the world has created a new sense of ease,” said Ibrahim Pourfaraj, president of Iran’s tour operators association.
Thomas, an engineer from Germany, said the nuclear issue is the only thing he hears about Iran in the news back home.
Photo: AFP
“What we see is totally different than what we hear from the outside,” the 29-year-old said. “The Iranians are very hospitable and very curious.”
Shiite pilgrims from Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon and Pakistan currently make up 60 percent of Iran’s visitors, but Tehrain’s main push is to recapture the spending power of Europe, Asia and the US.
For Iran — whose currency, the rial, has been severely depressed by rampant inflation — tourism offers a foreign exchange windfall.
The cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Yazd — all steeped in culture — are considered the country’s top attractions, but sites such as Kish Island with its beaches on the Gulf are also being promoted for a more relaxed holiday.
And the tourists are coming back: Official figures show that at the end of March, tourist numbers were up 35 percent year-on-year to 4.5 million, bringing in US$6 billion over the period. Iran, with 17 UNESCO-listed World Heritage sites, wants 20 million visitors within a decade.
However, a nuclear deal remains a hope not a given and tour operators know optimism can vanish quickly, so for now, local guides are filling their pockets.
“This is a new wave. We have between 300 percent and 400 percent more visitors,” said Mohsen Hajisaeid, who was looking after a group from Hong Kong. “For some languages we don’t even have a guide to help them.”
Iran’s shortfalls are not confined to translators. Although many hotels have been built in the sprawling conurbations of Mashhad, Esfahan and Shiraz — the closest city to Persepolis — they are primarily for the domestic market. In the tourism sector, there is a specific need for customer-focused training and more development.
“Our capabilities are limited compared to the influx of tourists,” Iranian Vice President Massoud Soltani-Far, whose brief includes tourism, said at an industry conference recently.
More than 900 projects are being undertaken at a cost of US$200 million, but there are still significant gaps in the market.
“Transport and four-star or five-star hotels are not there to meet the demand,” Soltani-Far said, perhaps alluding to well-publicized problems with the fitting-out of Iranian planes caused by the sanctions.
Yet there are bright spots at the top of the market.
Luxury train the Jewels of Persia arrived in Tehran on Oct. 27 on an all-inclusive 15-day trip, with tickets ranging from US$9,000 to US$14,000.
However, such trips may start to breed unease. Some conservative members of parliament are demanding that tourists be given guidance on how to behave upon arriving in the Islamic Republic.
It is a sensitive issue visitors must embrace — the dress code for women is loose clothing, known as hijab, that covers the head and neck, while men should avoid shorts.
A recent spate of acid attacks on Iranian women in Isfahan, reportedly because they were not properly veiled, has highlighted the requirements, despite authorities having denied such a link.
To those that do travel to Iran though, the warm welcome is outweighing concerns about dress, security or the need for high-class hotels and slick service.
“The country is safe, maybe more so than some European countries,” Thomas said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”