Iran Press/ Iran News: The 13th international tourism exhibition and 33rd national exhibition on handicrafts kicked off in international permanent fairground in Tehran on Wednesday, with Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts and some foreign officials involved in tourism attending.
The Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Ali Asghar Mounesan in his speech said, "Intangible heritage, tourism leads to the closer relationship among different cultures. We try to use tourism to introduce our heritage and culture to the world. Employment is also generated by the tourism industry. This industry is also used to transfer our culture to other countries. It could yield positive results with a little investment."
In further remarks, Mounesan said: "All our cities could be considered as tourism cities and the amount of effort made is a sign of its importance. With the people and governmental support, we will get over the bad effects of accidents like the Ukrainian passenger plane crash. Similar accidents have happened in other countries too, adversely affecting their tourism industry, but they have managed to get over it and move on."
The minister added, "Having the two exhibitions at the same time (tourism and handicrafts), gave us the chance to benefit from the advantages of synergy between these two fields."
Also making a keynote speech at the gathering was Deputy Minister of tourism Vali Teymouri who referred to 19.75 percent growth rate in the arrival of tourists during the past 10 months and around 1000 foreign companies providing accommodation, online purchase, insurance in Iran, noting that the global tourism industry has been adversely affected by the Coronavirus epidemic.
Teymouri stressed that Iran has increased the capacity in this field and our colleagues, and top officials look upon tourism as an opportunity.
40 top foreign companies are providing services in Iran. 20 unveiling ceremonies and 16 workshops are being held during the 4 days of the exhibition.
UNESCO regional office representative is also taking part in the exhibition.
A strategic document on tourism development was also unveiled during the cermony.
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