TEHRAN – The tourism infrastructure in the western province of Ilam needs to be improved, Ilam’s deputy governor has said.

Tourism is an important investment capability in Ilam province, and utilizing tourism capacities is one of the province’s key development strategies, Mohammad Sobhan Hassani explained on Saturday.

Several projects are being implemented in the province to improve and restore tourism infrastructure, which is expected to lead to a new era of Ilam tourism upon their completion, the official added.

In this regard, private investors need to be encouraged and supported, he mentioned.

Home to almost half of Iran’s UNESCO sites, western Iran is a land of hospitable people, wild extremes, and wilder history, and it may be an independent traveler's adventure playground. The region also witnessed the rise and fall of many great empires once bordering Mesopotamia, Ottoman Turkey, and Czarist Russia.

From the fecund Caspian coast to the stark, mountainous northern borders, and the crumbling desert ruins of the southern plains, the region hosts everything from paddy fields to blizzards to Persian gardens.

ABU/AM