TEHRAN – Kish Free Zone Organization has started construction of a massive winter recreation center in a bid to lure more domestic and foreign travelers to the southern Iranian island, yet expand its tourism infrastructure with a regional outlook.

“The organization supports initiatives that could expand leisure and tourism facilities as Kish aims to attain a top tourism status among regional rivals in the span of 2 or 3 years,” KFZO Managing Director Ali Asghar Mounesan said on Saturday.

A total of $21m will be channeled into the project that will be completed in two phases, the first of which would be operational in mid-2018 while the second is estimated to be fully functioning within two years, he explained.

“The center will embrace its own hotel as well. Hotels are not nowadays regarded as places just for residence and dwelling. What is pursued by modern hospitality industry sees those places for hangout.”

Named ‘Snow Land’, the complex will encompass an area of over 19,000 square meters. Its first stage will include recreational facilities and services measuring 7,606 square meters.

The project will go through its second chapter by erecting a 16-story hotel on 11,200 square meters of land, comprising 124 rooms and suites.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mounesan told reporters that the organization also plans to construct a 90-hectar amusement park westward the tropical island in the near future.

The KFZO is in charge of handling the infrastructure affairs, development and economic growth, creating job opportunities, attracting local and foreign investors, regulating the good and labor market and ultimately utilizing the Island’s tourist potentials.

Over the past couple of decades, Kish has become a beach resort where visitors can swim, shop and sample a laid-back and relatively liberated local lifestyle.

The coral island enjoys free-trade-zone status, with ever growing hotels, shopping centers, apartment blocks and retail complexes dominate the once-empty desert landscape. Its domestic tourist numbers have been on the rise as well, especially in winter, when it’s freezing cold on the mainland.

Iran aims to take advantage of southern coasts to make the best use of its maritime tourism potential by means of developing hospitality infrastructures, diversifying sea routes, and drawing private sector investors.

The country regards tourism a fountain of wealth, seeking to make the best use of positive atmosphere created in the wake of the JCPOA, a landmark nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers in January 2016.

PHOTO: An exterior view of Dariush Hotel on Kish Island, southern Iran

AFM/MG