TEHRAN - President Hassan Rouhani has recently emphasized the importance of developing tourism infrastructure in the country, according to Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Director Ali Asghar Mounesan. 

“The president said that increasing the number of hotels would help enhance the organization’s role in recreational field,” IRNA quoted Mounesan as saying on Sunday. 

Mounesan met the president to present a report of CHHTO’s plans and policies for the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21). 

The president also emphasized the need for urgent restorations of cultural heritage sites and monuments, which have recently suffered damage from flash floods and rainfalls, he added. 

Unprecedented increase in the number of foreign arrivals; playing host to international events such as Hamedan 2018; World Tourism Organization meetings in Iran, and ways to improve the country’s tourism industry in the domestic and global levels were among topics discussed in their meeting, the report said. 

Earlier this month, CHHTO Deputy Director Vali Teymouri said that U.S. sanctions, targeting Iran’s economy, has failed to lessen foreign arrivals to the Islamic Republic.

“U.S. sanctions have been ineffective in tourism industry of Iran,” he said.  

AFM/MQ/MG