TEHERAN – The occupancy of the hotels in Iran has reached 45 percent, announced the head of the Iranian Hotel Association.

After the planned measures, the occupancy of the country’s hotels, which had fallen below five percent due to the coronavirus outbreak, had reached 45 percent in the past three months, IRNA quoted Jamshid Hamzehzadeh on Sunday.

Several issues, particularly the pandemic, have had a severe impact on the tourism industry, the official said.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak and in 2019, trips were reduced due to heavy rainfall and flooding across the country and the hotel industry had to recoup almost 100 percent of the cost of canceled hotel reservations, he added.

Iranian hoteliers have lost 220 trillion rials (about $ 740 million) in the past two years, he noted.

However, some issues have been resolved and the condition of the hotels has improved, he said.

Back in October, the official announced that Iranian hotels were ready to accept foreign tourists as the issuance of tourist visas and the flow of foreign tourists from land and air borders would resume.

Ninety percent of hotel staff have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, so hotels are ready to accept foreign tourists in compliance with strict health protocols, he said.

Particularly, cities like Mashhad, Qom, Tabriz, Shiraz, Yazd and Isfahan are top travel destinations for foreign tourists in Iran, and serious planning is required to return to the number of over eight million tourists arriving prior to the coronavirus outbreak. added the official.

Iraqi tourists will flood the country once the borders open, but it will take time to attract tourists from Europe, he said.

However, he found that two-thirds of hotel workers have lost their jobs, he added.

Hamzehzadeh had already announced in September that all employees of accommodation centers throughout Iran would be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“In order to vaccinate the staff of all accommodation centers, including eco-lodges, apartment hotels and guest houses, and hotels, greater coordination with the Ministry of Health is needed,” he added.

Back in July, ISNA reported that the country’s tourism industry has lost around 320 trillion rials ($ 1.1 billion) since the coronavirus pandemic broke out.

The pandemic has also ruined more than 44,000 jobs in what was once a burgeoning travel sector in the country, the report added.

Experts believe that accommodation centers have suffered the most from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran and the resulting unemployment and financial losses.

Months of severe recession took their toll. Many travel insiders, hoteliers and tour operators face major dilemmas such as bankruptcy, unemployment, debt and the prospect of not being competitive on an international level.

Travel experts have developed new marketing strategies in the hope that Iranian tourism will bounce back. For example, the head of the Iranian Tour Operators Association said the international flow of tourists to Iran will normalize by 2022.

Iran is potentially a booming destination for travelers seeking cultural attractions, breathtaking scenery, and numerous UNESCO-listed sites. As part of the Tourism Vision Plan 2025, Iran aims to increase the number of tourist arrivals from 4.8 million in 2014 to 20 million in 2025.

ABU / MG