A meeting attended by authorities of East Azarbaijan Province and officials from Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization was held on Monday to make the last decisions for Tabriz 2018 event, the year-long nomination of the city as the Capital of Islamic Tourism, which is to be officially inaugurated in two weeks.
Free entry into museums and historical sites along with discounts ranging from 25% to 50% for hotels, carpets and certain goods were among measures envisioned for the beginning days of the event.
According to Mohammad Reza Kargar, director for museum affairs at ICHHTO, all museums and cultural or historical places across the province will admit visitors free of charge for three days from April 24 to 26 to mark the initiation of Tabriz 2018.
"A number of historical relics have been sent to the city and exhibitions of museum objects will be among the programs throughout the year," he said, CHTN reported.
Following contacts by Mohammad Moheb-Khodaei, ICHHTO's deputy for tourism, on the sidelines of the meeting, Tabriz Handmade Carpet Producers Association agreed to offer a 25% discount on the products from April 21 to May 15.
The official also managed to get the approval of the Association of the Leather Producers and Exporters of East Azerbaijan to reduce the price of shoes and bags by 30% in this period.
Moreover, the Hoteliers Association agreed to cut room prices by 50% during April 21-May 15.
Relevant officials were also tasked with pursuing discount offers for train and plane tickets and cookies and candies of Tabriz.
Opening Ceremony
The event, known as Tabriz 2018, is set to be officially launched on April 25 during a formal ceremony most probably attended by President Hassan Rouhani and several Cabinet members as well as tourism authorities from other countries.
Morteza Abdar, head of the provincial ICHHTO office, said the city is fully prepared to welcome foreign officials on the occasion.
"Hotels are ready to host domestic and foreign guests and trained workforce has been deployed to conduct the ceremony," he said.
During the meeting, Moheb-Khodaei, proposed holding handicraft expos and folk festivals on the route where the president and his entourage would travel.
"Since reporters from Iran and other countries will be present at the ceremony, tours could be arranged for them to other counties of the province to promote their attractions," he said.
Since Tabriz has been registered as World's Carpet City, a carpet and craft exhibition is set to start together with the opening of the 2018 event, according to Vida Tavahodi from ICHHTO's handicrafts department.
Nomination History
At the 9th Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers, Tabriz was selected to represent the capital of Islamic tourism in 2018.
However, the event was not initiated in January for some constraints.
The official opening ceremony was first postponed to mid-March, the beginning of the Iranian New Year, as January was said to be too cold in Tabriz for the event.
But it was put off again to April 25 for undisclosed reasons. Critics attributed it to lack of preparedness.
Even now, with over three months of delay, certain groups believe that the city is not ready to hold an international event of such scale properly, especially due to lack of lodging facilities.
With 21 counties and 3,000 villages, all boasting unique tourist attractions, East Azarbaijan has only 130 hotels, apartment hotels and guesthouses with an overall capacity of 8,000 beds, IRNA reported.
Although 27 hotels are under construction at present with around 60% progress, they are not likely to be completed before the end of 2018.
Provincial officials seem to be only seeing the global nomination as a starting point for the development of tourism in Tabriz.
"Tabriz 2018 is an opportunity and a motivation for the development of the industry with special focus on hotel construction," Morteza Abdar said.
