TEHRAN – Iran and Iraq have opened a new chapter in tourism cooperation with the launch of Iran’s first tourism roadshow in the country, featuring an 80-member delegation.

The roadshow, which includes tourism officials and industry representatives from Iran, is taking place in the Iraqi cities of Basra, Baghdad, and Karbala. The initiative aims to promote tourism exchanges, strengthen bilateral ties, and explore new opportunities for collaboration in the travel and hospitality sectors.

According to ILNA, based on sayings of officials from Iranian and Iraqi ministries of cultural heritage, 11.5 million tourists travel between Iran and Iraq annually, of whom eight million are Iranian tourists to Iraq and 3.5 million Iraqi tourists to Iran. 

However, despite significant tourism exchanges between Iran and Iraq, and the fact that more than 50 percent of Iran's inbound tourism comes from Iraq, no tourism or cultural event had been held between the two countries to attract tourists. 

Moslem Shojaei, the Tourism Ministry’s director-general for marketing and foreign tourism development, in a meeting with Nasser Ghanem Murad, head of the Tourism Authority of Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, pointed to the submission of the executive plan for development of tourism cooperation between Iran and Iraq by Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

He asked Ghanem Murad to approve this program and facilitate the signing of an official agreement between the two governments to develop tourism cooperation. 

Emphasizing the close ties between the private sectors of the two countries in developing tourism cooperation, he said that developing tourism relations between Iran and Iraq and introducing more tourism products in the fields of pilgrimage, health, history, and culture is dependent on the formation of two annual meetings of the Iran-Iraq Tourism Technical Committee.

Iraqi and Iranian tourists have diverse pilgrimage and recreational needs in the field of tourism, and if the two nations' understanding of the diverse tourism capacities of the two countries increases, the development of Iranian and Iraqi tourism will be achieved. 

Shojaei emphasized that Iran and Iraq are each other's first tourism market, adding that tourism exchanges between the two countries should increase at the level of government officials and especially at the level of the private sector, and Iran and Iraq, should reach the highest level of interaction in tourism development. 

Referring to the impact of tourism advertising in Iran and Iraq, he stated that two-way marketing and advertising of Iranian and Iraqi tourism in the two countries is the most important need in developing Iranian and Iraqi tourism relations.

During the meeting, Ghanem Murad agreed to the implementation of the Iran-Iraq tourism document and said that the final Iran-Iraq tourism document will be signed if Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts or other officials visit Baghdad or in the presence of Iraqi officials in Tehran. 

He also approved the proposal for bilateral marketing and advertising of Iranian and Iraqi tourism in the two countries and emphasized the need for government and private sector cooperation in this area, saying that tourism marketing and advertising are the most important factors in recognizing the two nations' tourism capacities, apart from the issue of pilgrimage. 

Tourism cooperation between Iran and Iraq was held for the first time in the form of Iranian tourism roadshow in Iraq with the efforts of the Association of Iranian Travel Agencies and the cooperation of Iranian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism for four days, leading to the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the private sectors of the two countries.

KD