A top official at Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization has complained that the travel industry's positive effects on economy and employment have either gone unnoticed or been attributed to other sectors.
In a recent estimate, Mohammad Moheb-Khodaei, tourism deputy at ICHHTO, announced that the industry recorded a turnover of 10 trillion rials ($2.3 billion) during Norouz, the Iranian New Year holidays (March 21-April 2), ISNA reported.
According to ICHHTO data, during the period between March 18 and April 6 that roughly corresponds to Norouz, 74 million night stays per person have been registered in the country, indicating a 20% increase compared to last year.
The data also indicates that travelers have stayed in the destination for an average of 3.8 nights.
"Considering an average stay of 3.8 nights, around 20 million people have taken a trip in this time. This will generate 10 trillion rials, assuming each individual has spent a minimum of 5 million rials ($119)," he explained.
Regarding the tourists' spending, the official said the figure has been approximated.
"People go to restaurants, buy food and souvenirs after all and it is unlikely that they spend less than 5 million rials ($119)," he said although the assumption is open to question.
ICHHTO statistics are often regarded as unreliable since the country has not developed a Tourism Satellite Account yet which is a standard global statistical framework for economic measurement of tourism.
Invisible Input
Moheb-Khodaei, however, insists that the near-precise estimations are sufficient to prove that the tourism industry is actually contributing to the country's economy even though it is neglected or claimed by other sectors.
He noted, for instance, that the large number of flights in cities such as Mashhad and Kish in comparison to their population is in fact thanks to the large crowd of travelers.
"If tourism were eliminated from Mashhad, its number of flights would definitely drop and the number of train services would probably fall to two per day. Kish would not have as many flights as it has today either if it did not host two million tourists each year," he said.
He also pointed out that many jobs have been created on the back of the public's traveling demands.
"Tourism's contribution to employment should be seen in the number of people that have been recruited as taxi and bus drivers or in restaurants, hotels, trains, flights and any other similar sector," he said.
Road construction projects and rural product markets, according to him, also owe their operation to the growth of the travel industry.
In fact, tourism should be appreciated for its input into the financial turnover and the new job opportunities in other sectors.
He called on all ministries and organizations to take the population of travelers and their demands into consideration while developing infrastructure or devising plans and making regulations since tourism has its traces in all economic areas.
