Iran rank first in the World Economic Forum

Iran has been ranked first worldwide in terms of price competitiveness in the World Economic Forum's "Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019" with a score of 6.7. Scores range from 1 to 7 where 1 means worst and 7 means best. The report attributes Iran's top ranking to low ticket taxes and airport charges (seventh), cheap fuel (fifth) and high purchasing power (fifth)."Price competitiveness" is one of the four pillars of the "T&T Policy and Enabling Conditions" sub-index, which captures specific policies or strategic aspects that impact the T&T industry more directly.

"Lower costs related to travel in a country increase its attractiveness for many travelers as well as for investing in the T&T sector. Among the aspects of price competitiveness taken into account in this pillar are airfare ticket taxes and airport charges, which can make flight tickets much more expensive; the relative cost of hotel accommodation; the cost of living, proxied by purchasing power parity; and fuel price costs, which directly influence the cost of travel," the report reads.

7.8m Tourists Visit Iran in Fiscal 2018-19

About 7.8 million tourists traveled to Iran in the last fiscal year that ended March 20, 2019, to register a 52.5% growth compared with the preceding year. According to Minister of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Ali Asghar Mounesan, the lower costs of Iran’s travel packages was a key factor in making the country more attractive for foreigners. Iranian authorities have redoubled efforts to boost the tourism sector to increase foreign currency revenues and create jobs. 

"The development of tourism infrastructure, considerable volume of investments in the tourism sector, along with the issuance of electronic visa, and visa waiver for target countries could be the main causes of growth in the number of foreign travelers," Mounesan said.

$1.47b in Tourist Spending

International visitors spent a total of 168,954 billion rials ($1.47b) in Iran in 2018, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council’s annual research into the economic impact and social importance of the sector.  Iran's travel & tourism sector grew at 1.9% to contribute 1,158 trillion rials ($10.11 billion) or 6.5% of overall GDP and 1,334 jobs (5.4% of total employment) to the economy in 2018, the WTTC report shows. The council expects the number of international arrivals to stand at 6.5 million in 2019. Some major sources were Azerbaijan (17%), Turkey (8%), Pakistan (4%) and Bahrain (2%). The remaining 46% came from the rest of the world.

WTTC's review of tourism spending in Iran in 2018 shows 93% of visitors spent on leisure activities while 7% spent on business transactions.