Only 0.05 percent of global tourists visit Iran every year, deputy head of the Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization for development and equipment affairs said, according to IRNA.
Ali Hashemi stressed that "we need to make serious plans to prop up the country's insignificant share of tourism."
He went on, "An 11-percent growth in tourism has been predicted in the Seventh Development Plan and this can be achieved within a 20-year perspective."
According to Hashemi, who was speaking during a visit to the Third International Tourism Exhibition in Mashhad, 16 different organizations and ministries are involved in promotion of tourism. "Stronger coordination must be forged among them to enhance the industry," he proposed.
He cited establishment of tourism sites, facilitation of visa regulations for foreigners seeking to visit the country, expansion of infrastructure, promotion of education, and coordinating the responsible bodies as programs followed by the ICHTO.
"Iran is one of those countries whose image is distorted worldwide. Over 80 percent of tourists have admitted Iran was totally different from what they found in propaganda," he stated.
The Third International Exhibition of Tourism and Related Industries was opened in Mashhad on Saturday. Some 240 domestic and 350 foreign companies feature their products and services at the weeklong fair.

A view of Yazd city

Head of Yazd Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department said the province boasts over 4,000 tourist draws, of which 440 have been registered, IRNA reported.
Mohammad Reza Seyyed Hosseini called the pre-Islamic relics and the monuments erected during the Islamic era as the main provincial assets.
Referring to the existence of 44 natural sites and 16 manmade monuments, he said the other provincial attractions include art, handicrafts, garments, gourmet as well as customs and traditions.
He said Yazd province is highly rich in terms of cultural and natural potentials.
The official referred to indigenous dry and mountainous climate, vast desert landscapes, protected zones, villages and caves as the precious local assets.
Seyyed Hosseini said the roads play a great role in developing tourism industry, adding five main tourist routes have been determined in Yazd and the nine provincial towns.
He noted that Yazd has certain restrictions in terms of its transport infrastructure and facilities.
"About 4,880 kilometers of roads have connected different parts of the province and the railroads of Tehran-Bandar Abbas and Bafq-Sarakhs play a great role in enhancing local tourism," he mentioned.

Jame Mosque of Saveh, in Markazi province, is one of the valuable relics of the Saljuqid period. The monument was constructed in the 12th century, coinciding with the establishment of the city itself. This structure is a treasure from an artistic aspect. Its tilework and plasterwork are spectacular.
This majestic mosque includes a courtyard, porch, minarets, nocturnal quarters, dome and two archaic altars with inscriptions in Kufic script. Two altars dating to the Safavid era are adorned with inscriptions in Sols script. There are also other inscriptions, inscribed with sacred verses, in Kufic and Sols.
There is an elevated porch between two nocturnal areas in the western front, with chambers on either side.
The dome of the mosque is 14 meters in diameter and 16 meters in height. Internally the dome has been adorned with tiles. The minaret is to an elevation of 14 meters. This structure has been listed in the national heritage list.

Tehran University will issue International Student Identity Card (ISIC) and International Teacher Identity Card for faculty members in association with the International Association for Student Insurance Services (IASIS), IRNA reported.
According to a memorandum of understanding signed between vice chancellor of Tehran University for cultural and student affairs, Mohammad Hossein Omid and IASIS managing director, David Jones, the academicians can as well benefit from tourism facilities abroad.
"Academicians enjoy a special status in all countries and they have always been provided with special privileges and facilities," he said, explaining that IASIS was established 50 years ago and has ever since helped promote and facilitate tourism for the academia.
"Its main headquarters is located in the Netherlands and more than 110 countries have attained its membership," Omid said.
He noted that academicians, holding the card, are entitled to discount rates of between 40 percent and 100 percent on hotel costs, air fares, as well as museum and library fees in countries that are IASIS members. "About 34,000 institutes across the world offer such services, all of which have been listed at the address www.ISIC.org," he noted.
He said all Iranian university students can receive the cards and there are no limitations.

Cable car project of Misho area in Marand, 60 kilometers from Tabriz, will be over next year with 170 billion rials worth of private investment, East Azarbaijan Governor General Office announced.
According to the report, the plan will be implemented in an area of 80,000 sq.m. at the central site and 40,000 sq.m. along the route, comprising a five-star hotel, restaurant, amphitheater, cycling track and rock climbing arena.
The report also referred to plans to build a winter games site in the vicinity of Sahand ski resort, with the purpose of providing recreation and entertainment and draw a larger number of domestic and foreign sightseers.
The winter games site will be located 40 kilometers south of Tabriz and the plan is being jointly carried out by the private sector and the Physical Education Organization.

A tour boat carries sightseers on the Seine River in Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world.

French Minister Delegate for Tourism Leon Bertrand said France will remain the first world tourist destination by receiving this year at least 75 million foreign tourists, nearly the same number as 2003, eastday.com reported.
In an interview published by French Daily Le Figaro, Bertrand predicted an increase of 2 or 3 percent in the number of tourists by the end of 2004, thanks to the world growth of tourism at a rate between 6 and 7 percent, after the recovery in Asia-Pacific, the United States and Japan.
According to figures published by Office of Tourism and Congress of Paris (OTCP), the Japanese spend on the average $276 per person and per day, the British $245 and the American $208, while tourists from other countries spend less than $200 per day per person.
The Americans, who used to be the biggest tourist group in Paris before the September 11 attacks, go out again in spite of terrorist threats but fell back to the third place due to the parity between euro and dollar.
The celebration of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy contributed to the increase of tourists from Britain, Germany and Japan. From 15 to 20 percent of visitors to the Paris-Plage 2004 are foreigners, according to the OTCP.

Indian's Tourism Ministry said it had identified 31 villages across the country to be developed as tourism hubs, 123bharath.com reported.
Besides developing infrastructure in and around these villages, the ministry will showcase art, culture, handicrafts and other traditional heritage at these sites with the active participation of local people.
The states, where the villages are located, include Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Assam, Sikkim, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
Highlighting the economic potential of tourism, Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhury told a travel meet that tourism could play an important role in poverty eradication by generating employment at grass-roots level.
Against an investment of one million rupees, tourism creates 47 direct jobs, virtually four times more than the industrial sector with the same investment, she said.
Chowdhury said the government was committed to developing tourism as a tool to promote human resource and economic welfare.
The tourism ministry has entered into collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and the economic affairs department to develop tourism in rural areas.
Chowdhury said the role of NGOs was critical in enhancing the community's tourism awareness, gender sensitization, art and craft skill development and training in visitor handling.

More than two million train tickets will be sold via the Internet next year (to start March 2005), ISNA reported.
In a ceremony for issuing the first online train ticket, managing director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways said that all citizens can purchase tickets at the site www.raja.ir.
Mohsen Pour-Seyyed Aqaei explained that the fares are in the beginning paid by Saman credit cards.
"Later those holding all other credit cards of the Shetab banking network will be able to buy tickets online," he stated.
Pointing that the state railway company transfers more than 16 million passengers each year, he predicted that initially about 10 percent of tickets would be sold online, but that the figure will increase in the future.
He gave assurances that ticket sales through the Internet is a highly safe procedure and explained, "Establishment of the system was not very costly. We have only paid for the software and the programming."

A peak tourism body has called for the protection of Tasmania's old-growth forests in the interests of national tourism, in a joint protocol with the Australian Conservation Foundation, examiner.com.au reported.
The move has raised concerns with the state government, Tourism Council of Tasmania and the forestry industry, who said they were not consulted on the matter.
The Tourism and Transport Forum represents 200 members, including Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, Hilton Hotels and has had an association with Tourism Tasmania.
TTF managing director Christopher Brown said both organizations saw the protection of Tasmania's old-growth forests as vital to tourism and environment.
"This can no longer be considered an exclusively Tasmanian issue and it demands action by the federal government and national tourism industry to forge a compromise solution," Brown said.
"There are 14,649 tourism jobs in Tasmania compared to a maximum of 1,500 jobs in old-growth logging."
The TTF has written to the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader calling on them to intervene to end old-growth logging to protect the viability of tourism.
It has also sought greater protection for the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree World Heritage Area.
Resources Minister Bryan Green labeled the joint protocol a stunt in the lead-up to the Federal election and said an existing protocol between the Tasmanian forestry and tourism industry was sufficient. "We already have a protocol which ensures that two of Tasmania's biggest employers--tourism and forestry--continue to co-exist and grow without placing unrealistic limits on each other," Green said.

Relics of Pol-e Dokhtar arch bridge in Miyaneh, East Azarbaijan province, which dates back to the Safavid era.