TEHRAN — Deputy Tourism Minister Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpei said that the use of new creative techniques, artificial intelligence and digital technologies in advertising and content production is a very important issue.
Speaking at a poster unveiling ceremony for the International Tourism Content Creation Festival held in Iran on Sunday, he said he believed it was essential to understand the country’s tourism potential, Mehr News Agency reported.
He also stated that content creation is the most important tool for successfully attracting foreign tourists.
Mr Mohseni-Bampei said the country’s tourism capabilities should be introduced into the international space in a timely manner and with the necessary quality.
He noted that the Ministry of Tourism has a limited budget for the promotion and introduction of Iran, and said that a scientific examination of its capabilities shows that more budget needs to be spent to attract foreign tourists, and spending on advertising is considered an investment. He added that producing high-quality content is the most important tool for successful tourist attraction, and anyone who can present their products better and more favorably will gain more customers.
“This international success is a source of pride and honor for this country. As the President also noted, Iran is a country of art and courage, and this country has embraced a great honor,” he said, referring to the president’s tweet about the inscription of three villages – Soheili on Qeshm Island, Shafiabad on Kerman, and Khanderous in Mazandaran – on the World Tourism Organization’s World Villages List.
He praised those involved in organizing the 2014 Iran International Tourism Content Creation Festival, calling it a blessed event, adding, “I’m sure more events like this will be held so that we can present Iran’s magnificent rainbow to the world with appropriate images.”
Moslem Shojaei, Director-General of Marketing and Foreign Tourism Development at the Ministry of Tourism, also expressed satisfaction with the cooperation between the government and the private sector in organizing the content production festival.
He said that the use of people’s abilities in the production of tourism content has been neglected, and that most of the content produced in the tourism sector is commercially produced, and that tourism activists, such as hoteliers and travel agency directors, produce and provide tourism content in this perspective.
Shojaei emphasized the use of scientific perspectives to produce international content, adding that due to scientific considerations, cooperation with Islamic Azad University in Yazd could be a suitable step to start this process.
He considered the use of public capacity to be a very important issue, stating that “we need to work together with different sectors to enable the publication of content created by the public on international social networks.”
As another speaker at the ceremony, Mohammad Mahdi Karminejad, Vice-Rector for Research at Yazd Islamic Azad University, said that collaboration between Azad University and institutions such as the Yazd Department of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, the City of Yazd, and the Yazd Provincial Chamber of Commerce and District Corporation led to the launch of the festival.
He announced the establishment of a Faculty of Tourism in the province, adding: “Given Yazd Province’s capabilities in the field of tourism, the cooperation of related institutions and the private sector, this trend will continue and we will soon witness the development of this faculty in postgraduate education.”
KD