A new department has been added to the provincial office of the Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization in Khorasan Razavi to better monitor the increasing number of lodging facilities in the most important shrine city of Mashhad – the provincial capital.
The aim of the new ‘ Tourism Services Department’ is to ensure higher standards and quality service by hotels as well as other facilities, YJC reported.
Nearly half of Iran’s five million inbound tourists visit Mashhad, most of whom are religious tourists and pilgrims. The northeastern metropolis is home to the mausoleum of the eighth imam of Shia Muslims, Imam Reza (PBUH).
About 25 million people from Iran and overseas make the pilgrimage to the holy site every year.
“The better we monitor travel and tourism services, the higher the satisfaction of tourists and pilgrims,” Hussein Zar’esefat, head of the provincial office of ICHHTO, was quoted as saying by the news agency.
