Toiran.com While the international strict sanctions caused the Iranian market to deteriorate for more than three decades resulting in significant depreciation of Rial’s value, pressing inflation and many other internal disturbances it caused exclusion of Iran from the global market and strained the tourism industry to go on a gridlock with the exception of health and religious tourism. The myths and propaganda accompanied with the sanctions caused the country to have only 1% of its tourism revenue till 2013 while Iran was ranked one of the top 10 destinations to see by the world’s media.
Fortunately, the landscape of Iranian market has dramatically changed within the last few months due to the agreement between the European union and Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to ease and cease many sectors of Iran related sanctions such as Finance and banking, Insurance, Oil, gas and petrochemicals, Shipping and ship building; transport and more. Due to this agreement and considering Iran’s wealth, vast significant business opportunities in Iran are guaranteed.
Iran is the last large emerging market with the second largest population in the region with about 80 million people. Iran ranks second in the world in natural gas and fourth in raw oil reserves. While opportunities in petroleum industries are transparent there a variety of emerging opportunities in the hospitality sector, shipping sector transactions and dealings with Iran’s private financial institutions. In addition the government has provided certain free zones like
Kish Island that offers tax exemption and protection for foreign investors. The opportunity to use Iran as an export hub in the region would offer an attractive opportunity for any international investor.
After the reach of the agreement regarding the economic sanction lift on July 14th 2015, the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, happily announced that we have reached a “new level” in Iran’s relations with the world. Furthermore, the government of Iran announced a set target to attract 20 million tourists each year by 2025 as businesses are tending to find new opportunities in Iran.
It is evident that the government today is largely investing on the tourism sector more than any other industry. Associated press has announced: “A country rich in historical and cultural treasures, Iran will unveil an investment package of 1,300 projects in the coming days to attract foreign investment and boost the badly-hit tourism industry. Iran is home to 19 UNESCO-registered sites.” We have been witnessing large investments on airport expansion, purchasing airplanes, numerous hotels and shopping malls under construction.
We are expecting a tsunami of tourists as our firm has recently witnessed a lot of growth in requests for business trips in oil segment, automotive industry, construction, finance and more sectors. With Iran’s unfolding market we are hoping to see this advancement and growth sustain and expand much more and more every year.