The Iranian Tourism Industry Embraces The IIPT And The Principles Of The IIPT Amman Declaration . Soon The Formalization Of The IIPT Iran Chapter.
After many months of preparation, on April 18th was held the First IIPT Iranian Working at the headquarters of the company “Miniature Group” in Tehran. With this meeting Fabio Carbone, lecturer and researcher in Heritage, Tourism and Intercultural Dialogue, IIPT Ambassador-at-Large and Special Envoy for Iran, officially launched the challenge of creating an Iranian Chapter of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT).
The meeting was attended by over 50 people came from all over Iran, representatives of different sectors of Iranian tourism industry (public, private, non-governmental and academic). Mostafa Khoshabi (Miniature Group) did the honours, as host who from the very beginning is supporting the project on the field, together with Sassan Ghassemi.
After that, Fabio Carbone had his speech. He presented the IIPT in detail and then presented the idea of creating an IIPT Iran Chapter. In particular, with his passionate speech Fabio Carbone highlighted the immediate and long-term benefits of an approach to tourism development in Iran based not only on economic profit, but also and above all on the socio-cultural development and the promotion, through the tourist activity, of the intercultural dialogue for the construction of peace. The third speaker was Pooya Alaedini, Associate professor at Tehran University. He intervened as an academic and tourism specialist, with further arguments to support the proposal. previous commitments did not allow the representatives of the municipality of Tehran and those of the central office of the Iranian Cultural Heritage Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) to be present, but their feedback has also been positive during previous communication and during the preparatory meetings.
After a coffee break, a second panel of representatives of the tourism industry has supported, through interesting and animated speech, the idea of the creation of the IIPT Iran Chapter. The first to intervene was Oveyss Kiyani, Head Board of Iran Federation Tourist Guide Associations (IFTGA). It was important to highlight the importance of the role of the tourist Guides within tourist activities, thus the importance of these professionals to embrace the principles of IIPT for a better offer and contribution for sustainable development of the destination. Following, Mohammed Reza Rezvani, representative of an NGO promoting sustainable tourism in Iran, provided the audience with the non-for-profit perspective in relation to tourism as vehicle of creation of peace. Finally, Talieh Shahrokhi intervened on behalf of the Gilgamesh – Heritage & Tourism Magazine, one of the media partner of the project. The journalist highlighted the role of the media in the promotion of a “Higher Purpose of Tourism”, as defined by the IIPT and his founder and president, Louis d’Amore. After the speeches, there was an intense and enthusiastic debate with the audience, and a unanimous positive feedback.
As concrete result, the representative of the National Geographic (Farsi version) offered to support the IIPT Iran Chapter by offering some space in the famous magazine. Moreover, many proposal for future projects to develop with the IIPT Iran Chapter have been weighted with public, private and non-for-profit stakeholders of the Iranian tourism industry. Individuals and organisations expressed the will to get formally engaged in the process of creation of the IIPT Iran Chapter, like for example the University of Bahar through her chairman of the board and head of the tourism department, Shahin Sepehri.
The “Tehran Agreement on the creation of the IIPT Iran Chapter” is the document produced in the end of the working meeting. We can now officially say that the Iranian tourism industry had embraced the IIPT principles, and get engaged with the creation of the IIPT Iran Chapter.
It was not an easy task, but the process of creation of the Iran Chapter has officially started! The first activity was announced and will be officially launched soon, a contest among Iranian faculties of art and design for the creation of the IIPT Iran Chapter’s logo based on 3 main themes: tourism, peace and Iran. Moreover, immediately after the meeting, the task force and organising committee of the Iran Chapter was invited in the Semnan Province by the ICHTO. During the visit, the possibility of involving the province in various IIPT Iran Chapter projects has been considered with Hani Rategaran, representative of the ICHTO – Semnan Province.
The IIPT Iran Chapter will be soon a concrete reality, thus., and in addition to the strong impulse of the promoter of the idea, Fabio Carbone, it is worth to mention and acknowledge the strong enthusiasm and support (from the very beginning) of Sassan Ghassemi, Mostafa Khoshabi, Mohammead Tandiseh, Narges Shojaie, Arash Nooraghayee, Mehrnaz Shafieian, Shahrzad Moayeri and Reza Jafari. Mashalla! Inshallah!
