Yazd as 1st Pilot Tourism City

Yazd will be introduced as a pilot tourism city, based on a memorandum of understanding that is to be signed between Yazd Municipality and Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

The idea was proposed by Yazd’s Mayor Mehdi Jamalinejad and welcomed by Mohammad Moheb-Khodaie, deputy for tourism at ICHHTO, during his visit to the city late last week, IRIB News reported.

“All the measures to expand tourism, such as improvements in security and transportation infrastructures, should be based on the tourism city scheme,” he said, adding that the ICHHTO chief will soon sign an MOU with Yazd Municipality.

The mayor of Yazd has also pledged to take measures in this regard by the end of the current fiscal year on March 20, 2018.

Tourism City is a concept that has been highlighted by the new ICHHTO chief, Ali Asghar Mounesan. In an earlier talk with the Persian daily Hamshahri, Moheb-Khodaei had elaborated on the idea.

“Based on this concept, urban development projects must be aimed at visitors as well as residents,” he said.

Several cities have already implemented plans for achieving the goals of tourism city.

Abyaneh Village in Kashan, Isfahan Province, and Masouleh in Gilan Province are small models of the same scheme.

Kish Island in Hormozgan Province has improved its airport to gain Grade 3 in quality of services nationwide.

Mazandaran Province has focused on the lodging sector and at present 120 lodging houses and 20 hotels are offering services across its cities. “The project is meant to organize and expand efforts so that Semnan Province, for instance, will follow the lead of Mazandaran and Kish,” Moheb-Khodaei said.

Besides, single cities alone cannot be huge tourism potentials and complementary spots across the province are required to lengthen tourists’ stay.

Moheb-Khodaei stressed that the tourism city scheme is not just about building hotels and resorts, but is about making plans based on the needs of both tourists and residents.