Minister of Heritage: We are committed to build 100 hotels a year

Seyyed Reza Salehi Amiri said to reporters on the sidelines of the government delegation meeting:

A series of programs have been developed to increase the tourism capacity of the country and we are consulting with the effective members of the government. Regarding the increase of tourism, we need three issues to be able to increase the capacity of tourism in Iran. The first capacity is to introduce our charms to the world. According to the studies of the World Bank, we have the seventh attractiveness, and I believe that we are among the first three countries with the attractiveness of tourism heritage.

He stated:

The second issue that should be considered is the issue of infrastructure. The third issue is security. Today, the tourism capacity of the country is about 2.6 million, according to our plan, we should increase it to 15 million. We formulated a set of programs and we are talking with the effective members of the government to pursue these three areas seriously.

The Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts further stated:

Another measure is to activate diplomacy. We are consulting with Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Iraq and many other countries to prepare the space for the arrival of tourists. We are committed to build 100 hotels a year in the country, especially 4 and 5 star hotels. Our opinion is that the 14th government will provide the necessary platform for the development of tourism with the dialogue of reconciliation. God willing, within the next year we will witness a change in the statistics and the number of tourists in Iran.

In response to a question regarding the return of Iranian works to the country, he said:

It may be interesting for our people that one of these important tablets was taken by one of the explorers who was active in the Dez Dam area, and after about 50 years, the children of this person visited their father and handed over this historical artifact to our agency. They gave it because they said it belongs to the people of Iran. God willing, in the near future, we will unveil it in the presence of the president at the National Museum of Iran. We will try to return these works to the country. Now we have legal cases in several countries and we are following them so that we can return the works that are from Iran in other countries.