An official at the Department of Environment said that the coastal regions of Iran have the potential of luring as much as 3 million visitors every year.
Parvin Farshchi who is the deputy for marine environments said that Iran is relying on its marine and coastal tourism potentials for achieving its 2025 target of drawing about 20 million tourists annually.
She added that they would be capable of achieving this goal only of the marine tourism plans are implemented appropriately an also in a timely manner.
The DOE, has actually been very cautious while developing tourism in the environmentally-sensitive regions. Having said that, officials like Farshchi are determined to promote the concept of sustainable tourism in this part of the world.
More than 70% of tourism development plans in the sixth five-year development plan are associated to marine tourism.
Farshchi said that developing tourism is quite significant to enable this region to attain its tourism goals. He added that the Mazadaran Province that is located in northern Iran that lies along the borders of the Caspian Sea is among the key areas of tourism development.
Last March. Melia Hotels International of Spain had declared that they are planning to launch a brand new five-star hotel in the province of Salman-Shahr.
This new hotel is scheduled to open in 2017. It would boast of a 130-metre tower overlooking the Caspian Sea. And, it is on its way to be the first foreign-branded seaside hotel of Iran in the last 40 years.
The past administrations of this region have always made efforts to turn the coastal cities into key marine tourism spots.
Yet, this sector accounts for only 1% of national production and employment.
Farshchi said that the contribution is negligible as compared to the massive capacities of the industry. He also said that recently, the government has allotted a generous budget to develop the marine tourism sector.
As per the latest statistics published by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the number of marine tourists arriving in this area have been increasing over the last few years. More than 7.2 million sea travellers have utilized the ports of the country in the initial four months of the current Iranian year that commenced on 20th March, 2016. The figures represent a 1.6% increase as compared to the same period the previous year.
The industry experts feel that appropriate procedures of planning and extensive investment in the marine tourism sector are bound to portray positive outcome.
Some of the effective measures undertaken by tourism officials include the introduction of a marine route between the Qeshm Island that is located in the Persian Gulf and Oman. The experts also feel that the potential of southern seas is yet to be exploited entirely.
