Qualified cities will be officially designated "Tourist City" by Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization in an upcoming exhibition on tourism economy.
"After monitoring and reviewing the plans adopted by provinces and cities over the past year to develop the standard features of a Tourist City, we prepared licenses grading the cities according to those standards," the director of ICHHTO's tourism department, Mohammad Moheb-Khodaei, said.
"We will hand those licenses during the International Exhibition of Tourism Economy and Investment to the officials from the provinces and cities deemed eligible," He said in a talk with the CHTN on Friday.
Tourist City is a concept put forth by ICHHTO's head, Ali Asghar Mounesan, last year to refer to the cities where services are designed to adequately meet the needs of visitors along with residents.
Since its introduction, the idea has increasingly gained traction in many provinces.
Exemplary Models
Moheb-Khodaei singled out Yazd, Hamedan, Tabriz and Ardebil as notable examples of cities that have achieved the standards of a Tourist City. "Tabriz 2018 and Hamedan 2018 events, the inscription of Yazd's historical structure on the World Heritage List and a concerted, spontaneous effort by the officials and people in Ardebil to revive its tourism industry helped the four cities emerge as good models of a Tourist City to be followed by their peers."
Creating a Tourist City does not require the reconstruction of a city from scratch, but rather involves a change of approach and planning to exploit the existing features and capabilities to catch up with the required standards, he said.
"Although there is good potential and appropriate infrastructure for tourist attraction in certain cities across the country, they have been designed to merely meet the needs of the locals," he said, adding that if the services in those cities become more tourist-friendly, they can provide a major source of employment and income.
