Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization is scheduled to attend 12 tourism exhibitions in cooperation with the private sector by the end of 2016, five of which will be held before the end of 2015.
Active participation in international expos is an excellent opportunity to promote Iranian tourism and provides a platform for tourism authorities and travel agencies to meet their counterparts from across the world and forge ties, ISNA reports.
For years, tourism officials at ICHHTO have been citing low funding as the main reason behind Iran’s lack of participation in international exhibitions. In fact, the private sector has been vocal about not receiving any support from the organization to participate in such events.
In an interview with the Persian travel news website Donyaye-Safar earlier this month, the promotion and marketing deputy at ICHHTO’s Tourism Department, Ali Baqer Nemati Zargaran, said measures have been taken to bring the public and private sectors closer and enhance cooperation.
“We have devised regulations that prioritize international exhibitions,” he said.
The private sector, supported by ICHHTO, will represent Iran in the 26th Jata International Tourism Expo in Tokyo, Japan, from July 21 to September 26, Mehr News Agency reported.
The other four exhibitions planned for 2015 include the 37th IFTM Top Resa exhibition in France (Sept. 24-27), 23rd International Travel Show TT Warsaw in Poland (Nov. 26-28), Industry and Travel Market Exhibition in Singapore (Oct. 2-7) and the 21st Tashkent International Tourism Fair in Uzbekistan (Oct. 6-8).
ICHHTO will represent Iran in two leading global exhibitions: FITUR in Spain (Jan. 20-24, 2016) and ITB Berlin in Germany (March 9-13, 2016).
