A university professor and tourism expert said: Iranophobia has long been one of the biggest challenges facing Iran’s tourism, and our foreign enemies always beat the drum of Iranophobia. The recent events and incidents in Iran have caused tourists who have a strong interest in traveling to Iran to avoid traveling to our country due to negative advertisements.
In an interview with Isna, Farid Javaherzadeh, the electronic publication of jahane-gardesh, stated that security in tourism is one of the most important categories of this industry, and its importance is even greater than the services provided in this industry.
He added: When we talk about security in this industry, we don’t mean security in the political field; It can also consider food security, health, psychological, etc. As during the Corona era, all businesses suffered a lot from this disease, it is clear that the safety of tourists was at risk in terms of life and health, and the problems we had during the Corona era are related to this category of the security of the tourism industry.
He said: A tourist travels when his security is stable and his destination is safe. Many times tourists are not looking for a 5-star and luxury hotel and are willing to stay in a tent or eco-tourism accommodation, provided that their safety is guaranteed; As a result, security is one of the categories of tourism development.
Iran has not had a good tourism security situation for 4 years
The head of the scientific nature tourism association of Iran continued: With the events we had in Iran before the corona virus, it has been almost 4 years that Iran has not had a good situation in terms of security in the field of tourism. Since the beginning of this year, the security conditions in Iran’s tourism had improved, and the measures taken by the government regarding the reopening of international borders and the resumption of issuing visas created conditions that improved the security situation of Iran’s tourism in the first 6 months of this year. and all tourism indicators were in better conditions than in previous years. The increase in the occupancy rate of hotels, the increase in travel tours and the increase in the number of tourists entering Iran was proof of the improvement of Iran’s tourism conditions.
He reminded: At the same time, Iran was one of the destinations that could attract tourists as this fall coincides with the hosting of the World Cup in Qatar, but unfortunately, due to some inefficiencies and wrong planning, we could not take advantage of this opportunity.
Red alarms of European countries for traveling to Iran
This university professor and tourism expert said: In the last 2 months, due to the beginning of the unrest, we have seen the issuance of red alarms and negative propaganda by European countries for their citizens to travel to Iran. At the same time that we had a bitter experience in the field of hosting World Cup tourists, we are witnessing that the unrest has fueled the category of Iranophobia.
Javaherzadeh added: Iranophobia has long been one of the biggest challenges facing Iran’s tourism, and our foreign enemies always beat the drum of Iranophobia. The recent events and incidents in Iran have caused tourists who have a strong interest in traveling to Iran to avoid traveling to our country due to negative advertisements. According to the relevant officials, the recent events in Iran caused almost more than 90% of tourist tours to Iran to be canceled; As a result, due to the instability of tourists’ security, we are witnessing a severe damage to the tourism sector.
He added: Ups and downs in this area are not only related to Iran and similar events have happened in other countries as well. Corona was one of the categories that targeted the safety of all tourists and different countries faced it and found solutions for it.
A member of the scientific council of Jihad University Tourism Research Institute said: It can also be said that some countries are experiencing conflicts and political instability, however, they should manage their tourism and get rid of the conflicts that arise. In 2011 and 2012, we witnessed political instability in various Arab countries, which caused serious damage to their tourism industry.
Javaherzadeh added: In 2016, there was a coup in Turkey as well, which led to a 30% decrease in the number of foreign tourists entering the country. Egypt lost several million tourists in 2010 and 2011 due to its political events.
Even in Europe and in 2019, internal protests in France have been effective in reducing the number of tourists entering France; All these cases show that different countries of the world are not strangers to this category and these events and protests happen in all parts of the world.
He clarified: There are 2 scenarios in this situation. In the first scenario, the messages of these protests should not be underestimated. It should be accepted that ignoring these messages is the biggest mistake in the tourism industry and it should be planned for. The most pessimistic situation is to abandon the conditions and impose restrictions on international platforms and activities in social and political fields, causing Iran’s tourism to disappear.
He said: The statistics published so far also indicate that the majority of human resources in tourism businesses will leave this industry. These forces are either unemployed and fired or have to change their jobs. Therefore, it seems likely that the situation of Iran’s tourism has worsened and caused distrust in traveling to Iran to grow further and the possibility of returning to favorable conditions will be delayed.
This university professor and tourism expert expressed his opinion by referring to the second solution regarding the recent incidents in Iran: The second scenario is to have extensive reforms in the political, social and economic fields and to free the internet and allow the use of platforms. Provide to the public and tourism businesses. Javaherzadeh said: The growth of tourism depends on digital marketing. Dealing with the world is necessary for the development of tourism, in addition to solving internal problems, it also creates security and trust between Iranians and foreigners. Therefore, trust building has started in the international community and the view of Iran is formed from a positive angle that even in the short term we will witness a huge and positive development in the field of tourism.
He said: Of course, along with these measures, some activities in the direction of software should be done by our tourism managers. In this area, measures should be taken such as training and preparing suitable platforms to attract tourists, such as related hashtags such as “safe Iran”, “beautiful Iran” and similar slogans, and holding info tours or familiarization tours for journalists and influential people in the field of tourism. So that Iran’s safe space is seen and communicated to the world. Javaherzadeh continued: Finally, Iran’s strong and extensive presence in international tourism exhibitions can create optimal conditions for Iran’s tourism to return to its good days.
No Comment