Iran minister advocates tourism diplomacy

Iran's Minister of Tourism Ezzatollah Zarghami said that tourism diplomacy paves way for interaction between nations and building peace at a time when many countries were facing extremism and terrorism.

The minister said this during his speech at the third meeting of Developing-8 (D-8) ministers on tourism cooperation that took place in Murree. The previous two meetings, in 2013 and 2008, were held in Tehran.

The D-8 is a collective of eight Muslim-majority developing countries that includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkiye. It was founded in 1997 in Istanbul and has its headquarters there.

The Iranian minister spoke about easing travel between countries while pointing out tourism’s revenue potential.

He noted that D-8 member states had high potentials and capacities for different kinds of tourism such as religious and pilgrimage tourism, health tourism, and so on. “In my opinion, considering that all D-8 members are Muslim, halal and Muslim-friendly tourism can be considered as competitive advantages for promoting intra-D-8 tourism flows,” he suggested.

He told The Express Tribune that the D-8 tourism conference would be held in February 2024. He added that Iran had unparalleled cultural heritage which the country was intent to preserve.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2023.