Chinese officials blame Iran's low share of the Asian country's tourism market on its inadequate lodging facilities, the small number of Chinese restaurants and the absence of people speaking the Chinese language.
During a recent conference held late last week in Tehran between Iranian and Chinese officials to discuss tourism and trade ties, participants agreed that the aforementioned shortfalls have hampered bilateral tourism relations.
Experts believe that Iran's deficiency in meeting these requirements has driven Chinese tourists to open illegal lodging places and seek help from their compatriots as travel guides, the Persian daily Donya-e-Eqtesad reported.
Chinese officials hoped tourist exchange between the two sides will further develop once these issues are resolved.
Many governments vie to attract more travelers from China, which is one of the world's largest outbound tourism markets.
In 2017, some 130 million Chinese tourists traveled across the world, which is expected to rise to 150 million by 2020.
Iran's share of the market, however, is very small. In 2016, only 73,000 Chinese travelers, equal to 0.05% of the country's outbound market, travelled to Iran.
Mohammad Moheb-Khodaei, deputy for tourism at Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, said Iran will take a giant leap in the sector if it manages to increase the share to 0.5-1%.
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