Page 52 - IRANRptNov21

Caspian countries ‘developing concept for sea tourism’
Hotel closure rate in Iran has hit 30% amid pandemic says federation
“By an order of President [Ebrahim Raisi] the issuance of tourist visas and the flow of foreign tourists from land and air borders will be resumed from [the Persian calendar month of] Aban [October 23 – November 21], following 19 months of suspension,” Zarghami was quoted as saying.
Prior to the pandemic, 240,000 people were directly employed and 550,000 were indirectly employed in the Iranian tourism industry, industry estimates suggest.
The five countries with a Caspian Sea coastline intend to develop tourism segments including ecological, beach, pilgrimage and cross-border, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during last week’s 6th Caspian Media Forum in Astrakhan, Russia. Under the 5th Caspian Summit communique, bodies of the Caspian Sea states—Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—were instructed to hold five-sided consultations on tourism in the Caspian Sea region. These consultations went ahead on August 27, 2019 in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
The most important task now, Zakharova said, was the creation of an architecture of cooperation between the Caspian Sea countries in the field of tourism, with a clear definition of its legal framework, the development of convenient visa mechanisms and the coordination of cruise tourism routes. “Currently, a draft agreement with the Caspian countries in the field of tourism is being worked out, with the involvement of commercial structures of the coastal countries. Also, government departments are working on the issue of tourism development in the Caspian Sea basin along the Astrakhan-Baku-Anzali-Turkmenbashi-Aktau route, with the involvement of a public-private partnership mechanism for this task,” Zakharova added.
Some 30% of hotels in Iran have shut down since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country in February, the Federation of Hotel Owners has said.
A collapse in bookings and lack of support provided to hotel owners to stay solvent saw many hotels either forced to close or mothball operations, it added.
“The industry has suffered Iranian rial 85tn ($304mn at the free market rate) in losses because of the pandemic and the radical decline in domestic and international travel,” federation representative Jamshid Hamzehzadeh was quoted as saying.
Some 70% of jobs have been lost in Iran’s hotel industry in the past year, with local tourism essentially non-existent on a short-term perspective, he added. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, 240,000 people were directly employed and 550,000 were indirectly employed in the Iranian tourism industry, industry estimates suggest.
9.1.6 TMT sector news
Iran launches domestically produced 5G core network
Sadad Informatics, an Iranian company known for supporting interbank transfers, has announced that it has developed Iran's first fifth-generation (5G) core network, ILNA reported on September 21.
Iran’s technological core networks have been supported by companies including Huawei and Nokia, but this announcement indicates that the country has managed to develop its own such backbone infrastructure for the first time. Sadad CEO Mohsen Alipour was reported as saying that the business will be able to offer 5G support and technology services to local internet providers in
52 IRAN Country Report November 2021 www.intellinews.com