TEHRAN - The London-based super budget hotel brand easyHotel has signed a master development agreement to expand activity in Iran.

The company said the agreement is anticipated to deliver more than 500 new rooms in the country.

EasyHotel, part of the group that owns budget airline easyJet, said on Monday it signed deals with British companies 3SV Limited and MHA Hatfield Limited for the development plan, which will comprise a combination of new-build hotels and takeovers.

Currently the only easyHotel outside of Europe is in the UAE, StockMarketWire reported.

In May, an Iranian tourism official said a total of 20 four- and five-star hotels will be inaugurated across the country by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2018).

An initiative for building hotels to jumpstart the tourism industry is the most important measure taken by the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization, Mehr quoted Saeed Shirkavand, as saying. 

Spurring foreign investment to improve the country’s hospitality industry has been a main strategy of the department. However, the investors have mainly been involved in hotel management rather than hotel construction so far, he said.

Last October, the deputy economy minister Mohammad Khazaei unveiled an incentive plan based on which Iran grants years of tax exemption to both domestic and foreign businesses and individuals who invest in hospitality industry of the country.

“The tax exemption [strategy] has been envisaged for a period of 13 years for investments in underprivileged areas, and five years for other parts of the country,” ISNA quoted Khazaei as saying. 

Under a national outlook plan, the country is projected to increase the number of tourist arrivals from 4.8 million in 2014 to 20 million in 2025.

MG