The World Travel and Tourism Council ranked Iran 20th from among 185 countries in its 2017 power ranking, which evaluates countries in terms of absolute size growth measured in US dollars in the field of travel and tourism.
WTTC’s new Power and Performance report, published in September 2018, looks at the performance of countries over 2011-17.
The council ranked all countries across four main indicators of total contribution to gross domestic product, visitor exports (spending from international visitors), domestic spending and capital investment.
Countries have been ranked in terms of absolute size and speed of growth to create two separate power and performance rankings respectively.
Power Ranking
Broken down, the power ranking shows that Iran’s travel and tourism share in GDP grew by $10.4 billion over the seven-year period, which shows the 19th biggest growth from among the 185 countries under study.
The figure rose to stand at $30.7 billion in 2017 (accounting for 7.3% of Iran’s total generated GDP that year), which positioned Iran at 35th place.
Travel and tourism is a dynamic engine of economic development across the world. The money generated by industries that sell products and services directly to tourists, such as hotels, travel agents, transportation and souvenirs, is measured to determine the direct contribution of the sector to GDP. This direct impact, together with the contribution from investment, government spending on tourism, supply chain effects and also the broader contribution to GDP by those directly employed in the sector combine to create the total economic impact of travel and tourism to GDP.
Iran ranked 28th in visitor exports that amounted to $3 billion over the seven months. Foreign tourists spent $4.6 billion in Iran in 2017. The figure accounted for 3.9% of Iran’s overall exports during the same period.
Iran, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Thailand made the top 30 in both size and speed of visitor export growth.
In domestic spending, which is the money spent by residents of a country for both business and leisure trips taken inside the country, Iran ranked 12th with more than $5.1 billion growth. WTTC data show Iranians spent $16.4 billion in their domestic travels in 2017.
Nearly three-quarters of all travel and tourism spending (72.3%) are by domestic tourists. While money from domestic tourism is not new, its use in terms of informing residents of the countries’ natural and cultural attributes and engendering a source of pride are essential for social harmony, according to the WTTC report.
In the capital investment index, Iran did not make it to the top 30 over the period so there are no details available apart from the fact that the country ranked 56th globally.
Capital investment in travel and tourism is required to support the growth and development of the sector. Whether provided publicly by governments or privately to build or expand capacity, maintain or enhance infrastructure and to stimulate demand, it will include spending across all industries. Overall, $882 billion were spent on travel and tourism capital investment across the world in 2017, which constitute 4.5% of total global investment.
China, the US, India, Mexico and the UK topped the list of countries with the largest growth in travel and tourism power ranking.
Performance Ranking
In the performance ranking that highlights countries with the fastest growth in percentage terms with growth measured as a compound annual percentage increase, Iran did not make it to the top 30 list in any of the indicators. The report reveals data on the top 30 countries in each indicator only.
The top five countries in this ranking are Myanmar, Iraq, Georgia, Rwanda and Iceland.
Travel and tourism accounted for 10.4% of global GDP and 313 million jobs, or 9.9% of total employment worldwide in 2017. Last year was one of the strongest years of GDP growth in a decade with robust consumer spending worldwide.
This global growth boosted travel and tourism, with the sector’s direct growth of 4.6% outpacing the global economy for the seventh successive year.
Decline in Inbound Tourism
Iran's tourism industry recorded a negative growth rate in 2017, according to the latest report of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Based on the organization's tourism highlights published in August, Iran hosted 4.86 million tourists in 2017, recording a 1.5% fall compared to that of the year before. In 2016, the country had been selected as a travel destination by over 4.9 million people.
In addition, UNWTO reported that the figure in 2010 was 2.9 million people, which allows a broader comparison.
On tourism revenues in Iran, UNWTO reported that the country had earned $2.43 billion in 2010 and $3.71 billion in 2016, but the earnings in 2017 were not disclosed.
However, tourism officials in Iran have estimated that the revenue had been around $6 billion. The 2016 figures are inconsistent with the stats provided by Iranian tourism authorities who had reported that tourism revenues exceeded $8 billion in 2016, indicating a 46% difference with UNWTO's data.
Making things more complicated, the decrease in the number of incoming tourists to Iran in 2017 happened when the World Travel and Tourism Council had earlier predicted a 16% growth, expecting it to reach 5.5 million people.
Considering the fact that current data are not promising, Iran's ultimate goal of attracting 20 million foreign tourists annually by 2025 seems to be highly elusive.
