Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) has issued a permit for higher hotel prices according to the domestic inflation rate, and the hotels in the country are free to increase their prices by 20%, Jamshid HamzehZadeh, head of the Iranian Hotel Owners Society said, Ta’adol reported.
A tourism expert who does not see this as a positive development, said “not only does the increase in hotel prices make traveling more expensive, but it is introduces a ‘cancer’ that will bring hotel owners to their knees during the off-season.”
According a report from a leading industry member a couple of months ago, several foreign tours groups had cancelled their trip with his agency citing high traveling costs as the reason. He attributed the rising price of Iranian tours to the increased hotel prices.
Challenge of Increasing Hotel Prices
HamzehZadeh stressed that hotels had not increased their prices during the present Iranian calendar year (ends March 22), and would not be applying any price changes until after the New Year holidays out of respect to people. Furthermore, the Iran Cultural Heritage Organization approved the increase in hotel prices in accordance with the domestic inflation, which was applied mid-December.
This price increase is for the current year, and in some provinces may be even less than 20%, said the hotel society head, adding that “hotel ownership became extremely expensive after the removal of subsidies, yet hotel prices did not increase respectively.”
Convulsing Solution
Meanwhile, those involved in the tourism industry believe that the 20% growth in hotel prices is only advantageous during the four traveling months of Iran, and will cripple hotel owners throughout the rest of the year. Up until a few months ago, a European tourist could manage to travel here with 1200 euros, an amount that has jumped to 1700-1900 Euros after the 20% price growth, which is the reason why some European tourists cancelled their travel to Iran. That is while the same tourist can travel to Turkey and stay in a five-star hotel for a week, and pay no more than 600-700 euros excluding tour guide services.
