Iran’s Hoteliers Society has announced that it will take legal action to revise the directive recently issued by the Supreme Board of Supervision at Iran’s Chamber of Guilds.
Based on the directive, hotels, motels and guesthouses as well as road and traditional restaurants are required to apply for a permit from relevant guilds, in addition to acquiring a license from Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.
Javad Abbasi, the head of the Gilan Province’s chapter of the society, however, maintained that the guilds’ intervention is “irrational and illegal”, the travel news website Donyaye Safar reported.
“Since the beginning, a single specialized organization has been in charge of tourism affairs,” he said, describing the directive as “anti-tourism.”
Iranian guilds operate under the supervision of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade, which means the ministry is indirectly interfering with tourism affairs, which must normally be handled by ICHHTO.
“If the ministry is in charge, what are the responsibilities of ICHHTO?” he asked.
Iranian Hoteliers’ Society has admitted representatives from guilds on its board of directors which, according to Abbasi, was “a move to improve tourism and cooperation between hotel owners and guilds, but appears to be yielding the opposite result”.
The society currently does not have the legal authority to oppose the rule, as three out of the seven members of the board of directors are from guilds. But Abbasi asserted that the society’s silence does not imply consent.
“In the absence of an official objection by the board of directors, we (hotel owners) feel responsible to fight for our rights and will lodge a formal complaint to the Administrative Justice Court to nullify the new rule,” he said.
