Tourism development and its transition in Iran at present

Although leisure and hospitality has been a part of the basic needs of human from long time ago, but tourism as an industry in Iran started during the first half of the 2nd century. In contemporary era after Pahlavi kingdom from i.e.1920 to 1960 Iran has experienced new evolution in the method of pre capitalism production and has crossed the capitalism relation, this process has leaded to social-economic and technological advancement and tourism industry was also affected by this process. Despite the fact the growth of tourism has been remarkably slow; as a result the number of tourists in 1952 was 53895 persons. By the changes which took place in 1960s and the land reform has led to the termination of feudalism and the expansion of money as a means of relation and the urban extension. Gradually, the notion of tourism came to be the focal point of the government policies. The occurrence of war between Arabs and Israelis (1973) and the raise of oil prices made the rate of urbanization significantly high and this itself caused bourgeois classes in Iranian society. The increasing of the income of the middle class paved the way for the people of the community to spend part of their income on tourism and sightseeing. The peak of capital expansion occurred during 1960-1975 in Iran. At the same time, we have witnessed the extreme growth of tourism in a sense that the number of the tourists increased up to 657930 in 1975. After the Islamic revolution of Iran which took place in 1979 and the imposed war against Iran by Saddam till the end of the war, tourism industry drastically descended in a sense that the number of tourists decreased up to 147522 persons in 1980. However, the implementation of first, second and third social-economical and cultural programs (1989-2004) many of the cultural and economical infrastructures were rebuilt and some of them developed much better than before. Hence, this movement has stimulated the tourism industry in Iran wherein the number of tourists has raised up to 1341762 in 2000. In the fourth program of social-cultural and economic of the country which has started since 2005, a heavy attention has been paid to the objectives and goals of tourism industry and it is expected to have over 20000000 tourists during of plan years by the end of the fourth program (2009). These structural and functional evolutions which indicate the transitional stage in tourism industry and its drastically and rapid climb in Iran.