TEHRAN—A harvest festival dedicated to pomegranates opens today in the village of Tochal in Tehran province.

This is the third edition of a pomegranate festival scheduled to take place in Tochal village (of Pakdasht county) from October 19 to 21, Pakdasht’s tourism chief said on Monday.

“The purpose of holding this festival is to help develop rural tourism and promote agricultural tourism in Pakdasht county,” Asadollah Tajik added.

Earlier this month, the provincial tourism chief announced plans to develop agritourism across the province. “For the first step, the preservation of cultivated fields and greenhouses is a key factor in revitalizing the agricultural industry,” Parham Janfeshan added.

Agritourism is a relatively new branch of the travel industry in which tourists stay with locals in rural areas. Farm/ranch recreation refers to activities conducted on private agricultural lands, which might include fee-hunting and fishing, overnight stays, educational activities, etc.

Agritourism is a subset of a larger industry called rural tourism that includes resorts, off-site farmers' markets, non-profit agricultural tours, and other leisure and hospitality businesses that attract visitors to the countryside.

Experts believe that agritourism pays special attention to the production sector, saying agricultural tourism is much more important and practical than other branches of tourism because it creates a new chain and diversity in the field of production and services.

Every year in autumn, many Iranian pomegranate farmers hold such festivals to thank God and celebrate the harvest season. Throughout the Orient, the pomegranate has since the earliest times occupied a position of importance alongside the grape and the fig.

AM