Vali Teimouri in Birjand's Shukatabad Garden and Mansion told reporters that last year, tourist arrivals to Iran increased by 52%, last year though Iran's tourism capacity is far greater than this absolute advantage can be achieved by the consensus and the high attitude of the country's top officials.
He said that tourism is not point-centric, but rather route-oriented: that the tourist selects certain parts of the country and neglects some of the areas with capacity is not proportionate with the distribution of the country's attractions and climate variations.
*** Iran's revenues from tourism hits $11 billion
The Minister of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism on December 28, 2019 said that according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO) statistics, Iran gained $11.7 billion in direct revenue over the past Iranian year (started March 20), and this year it has brought total revenue of $11billion.
Ali Asghar Mounesan made the remarks addressing a ceremony in Bandar Abbas on Saturday.
He said that Iranians' kind attitude and hospitality, as well as their cultural background, have thwarted the enemy propaganda against Iran and foreign tourists return home with a positive outlook from Iran.
"This demonstrates the capacity of tourism to thwart the efforts of the streamers against the country," Mounesan noted.
Mounesan added that Iran's tourism potential is high in various sectors and areas such as the southern coast, central desert, nature and geography of the north and west of the country, as well as the culture and customs of the people.
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