STRONG INCREASE OF BUSINESS TRAVELS AND CULTURE TRIPS PREDICTED
The nuclear agreement and the loosening of the sanctions cause expectations of a touristic gold rush: As travel destination Iran offers lots of cultural experience and is about to reveal this to more and more international tourists. The hotel market requires significant extensions and new buildings. The capital Tehran currently supplies only 96 hotels, in comparison: Dubai offers 657 properties. According to TOPHOTELPROJECTS, the worldwide leading provider for global b2b hotel data, only five new hotels are in the pipeline, all by the Rotana hotel chain. However, this might change soon.
Last year, only 4.8 million tourists travelled to Iran. According to surveys by TRI Consulting the occupancy rate of top hotels in Tehran was at 79 percent with an average room rate of 108 US-Dollars and a Revpar (revenue per available room) of 85 US-Dollars. Hotel experts are now predicting an increase of business travel, led by delegations of company representatives accompanied by Western world’s Ministers of economics. Modern hotel concepts are in great demand, especially in the higher segments. Nowadays half of all overnight stays in Tehran are generated by business travels.
The majority of inbound overnight stays in Iran were motivated by religious reasons. But these days more and more Western, cultural interested tourists are visiting the country with its 17 Unesco world heritage sites. The international hospitality and tourism consulting company Horwath HTL is predicting a tourism boom in Iran as the “next big thing”.
A new passenger train, which will shuttle between Budapest and Tehran starting this autumn, promises a truly luxurious journey to the jewels of Persia. The “Golden Eagle Luxury Trains” will show the panoramas of the Orient and Occident in 15 days for about 13,000 Euros per person.
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