Hospitality in Popular Culture and its Impact on Tourism and Iranology

The Iranian-Islamic life enjoys specific features, such as hospitality, which is a part of the oral and intangible culture of Iranian ethnic groups. The manifestations of this feature can be clearly witnessed in the literature, art, poetry, music, customs, and traditions of different regions of this land. The culture and literature of each Iranian ethnic group pay particular attention to guests, parties, and hospitality. This point has also attracted the attention of Iranologists, tourists, and world travelers and can be deemed as an influential cultural-social and economic-political element. Hence, the science-industry of tourism should pay great attention to the important theme of hospitality in order to promote successful business as the manifestation of the character of Iranians in the view of other nations all over the world. Iranians’ hospitality has been recognized as the most important attraction of this country in several travel accounts, documentaries, and interviews with tourists returning from Iran. Based on anthropological studies, the present paper has examined hospitality as one of the desirable and moral behaviors of Iranianpeople in the context of popular culture and intends to manifest its relationship with the process of attracting tourists in the light of ethnological elements.