Requirements in Tehran Metropolitan (Case Study: Accommodation Centers of Tehran and Istanbul)

Tourism industry is one of the greatest and high-yielding economic activities with the highest added value. It affects directly and indirectly other social, economic and cultural activities. Developments of urbanization and life style in the modern times have made tourism planning and management an inevitable requirement. Tehran as one of the greatest cities in the country, region and in the world possesses various international tourism capacities; however, despite the large number of travels in the city, these capacities have remained unused. There is a mutual relationship between tourism development and establishment of infrastructures: tourism development in cities causes improvement of the infrastructures, and infrastructural developments improve urban tourism. The latter is able to change geographical bases of a tourism region and provide it with cultural, social, economic and spatial growth and development. Since, one of the most crucial problems of the tourism decision makers is accommodation, and since Tehran metropolitan is the first destination of foreign tourists and as the country's capital is the center for holding cultural and political events, this paper has considered Tehran’s accommodation centers situation, using an analytical-descriptive method. Instrument of the research consists of documentary and library studies. A comparative study was briefly conducted to compare tourism industry in Tehran and Istanbul. In addition, effective factors and criteria for tourism development planning were assessed. This paper would present some considerations, concerning the tourism requirements, with an emphasis on the current situation of the tourism infrastructures and specifically accommodation. The results of the study reveal that adopting appropriate policies for distribution of tourism facilities in different tourism centers may improve tourism industry in the country.