Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization has ordered the closure of 18 tourism agencies in the capital over the past five months, said Shahram Alimohammadi, head of the tourism division of ICHHTO's Tehran office.
"Tourism inspectors visited 406 agencies, four of which were ordered shut for one to three months," Alimohammadi also told IRNA on Monday. The inspectors also identified and shuttered 21 unlicensed tourism agencies and referred their cases to the security and judicial authorities, he said.
Alimohammadi put the total number of the agencies operating in Tehran at 2,051. "In the current year, 78 new operating licenses have been issued for tourism agencies and 280 for tourist guide institutes."
Alimohammadi said his office is overseeing a plan to ensure decent standards of hotel services and equipment in Tehran.
"Under the project launched last year to ensure the standardization of the 110 hotels operating in Tehran, safety systems, services and personnel of 80% of the hotels have so far been checked."
He said the ICHHTO intends to extend the project to cover inns and other lodging facilities. The move is aimed at boosting the tourism sector that could prove pivotal in helping keep the Iranian economy afloat in the face of the US sanctions that have targeted oil, banking and other key economic sectors.
