42 Rural Tourism Projects Approved

During the first meeting of the workgroup that surveyed rural tourism schemes, 42 projects in 16 provinces managed to gain the final approval, paving the way for their implementation.

The Municipality and Rural Management Organization is set to develop tourism infrastructure in 100 target villages as part of a plan to use rural tourism potential to create jobs and generate income, IRNA reported.

To meet this goal, the Civil and Rural Coordination Office of MRMO, in cooperation with Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, set up the workgroup to select qualified villages since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 20).

"After detailed studies, 260 villages from among the country's target rural destinations were selected and introduced to governorates," said Ashkan Jafar Karimi, the head of CRCO, told on Saturday after the meeting.

The governorates then conducted feasibility studies and presented their conclusions to MRMO.

In the feasibility studies, rural attractions, average annual number of tourists, the project's requirements, level of progress and amount of budget spent on unfinished projects, and its viability and job creation capacity were taken into consideration.

"Projects in 16 provinces have been determined and the proposals for the remaining 15 provinces will be studied in the upcoming meetings of the workgroup," said Karimi.

The UN World Tourism Organization has called for better financing of tourism development projects to help impoverished communities.

"As we move forward to adopt a new sustainable development agenda, we have a unique opportunity to raise the level of assistance in tourism to further harness its vast potential for stimulating green growth and inclusive development worldwide, particularly for the countries most in need,” UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai said last year.