Middle East

DONYA-E-EGHTESAD: According to World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)'s long-term forecast, the Middle East is expected to triple its current volume of international tourism by 2030 after experiencing a significant growth of tourism. Nonetheless, Iran's contribution to Middle East's tourism boom is not clear and this would result in incurring heavy losses.
As reported by UNWTO, Middle East will welcome 149m international tourists per year with an annual growth rate of 4.6% by 2030 (comparing to 3.3% average global growth rate). Middle East tourism industry is diversified, ranging from entertainment to hiking and international conferences and seminars. In a report entitled "Impact of the Arab Spring on Travel and Tourism" international research firm "Euromonitor" stated that Middle East experienced a 10% dip in tourism arrivals in 2012 with hopes for recovery in the coming year. I.R of Iran was not taken into consideration by "Euromonitor International". According to the report, world tourism industry relies on European and American countries and visitors are mostly from Asia, however European and American tourists are eager to visit the countries which were not previously possible for them to travel into.
At the beginning of 2014, it seems that predictions regarding Gulf Region, Middle East and somehow Iran came true. Nonetheless, Iran has a meager share less than 0.01 percent of the world's tourism earnings. 25 billion dollars of annual earnings has been projected in Iran's 20-Year Vision Plan for tourism industry.
Iran's oil revenues and Italy earnings from tourism!
According to Iran's Minister of Oil, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran's oil revenues in 2013 stood at $ 4.6 billion which was equal to Italy's tourism revenues! Figures show that Iran ranked 147th among 184 countries for travel and tourism total contribution to GDP with only 2%, while Turkey ranked 76th in the world.