Industry faces collapse as tension grows over nuclear issue and sailors' detentionThursday April 12 2007
With its enduring relics of a glorious imperial past, spectacular glittering mosques and breathtaking landscapes, Iran lays claim to some of the finest cultural jewels in the Middle East.
But a potentially catastrophic collapse in the country's tourist trade is threatening to leave this dazzling array of attractions largely unseen by foreign eyes, as international tensions with the west deter a growing number of overseas visitors. The problem has been exacerbated by the recent detention of 15 British marines and sailors, which prompted mass cancellations of foreign tours to a land described this week by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as a cradle of civilisation.
Fears of military conflict over Iran's nuclear programme and disquiet over Mr Ahmadinejad's infamous remarks on the Holocaust had already caused a sharp decline in the number of affluent western visitors, a vital source of foreign currency in a struggling economy.
Now industry insiders say the problem has reached crisis levels. Even before the sailors' crisis, Iranian travel agents were staggering under the burden of declining foreign trade. One of Tehran's leading travel agents recently laid off 70 workers due to the fall-off.
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