Iran VP opens privately-owned $150 mln hotel in north Iran
Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref has opened the country’s largest five-star hotel in a resort in Iran's north amid efforts by the government to boost activity in the Iranian tourism sector.
Aref and senior government officials inaugurated the Araz Hotel in a ceremony held in the city of Noshahr along the Caspian Sea coast on Tuesday.
The hotel is owned by a private investor who has spent $150 million and 10 years on the construction of the project, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency.
The 30-storey hotel has 515 rooms and 1,200 beds in addition to many modern recreation facilities, the report said, adding that it has created some 900 jobs in the region.
Aref said during the inauguration ceremony that the incumbent administrative government has a firm policy to support private investors and entrepreneurs in Iran.
He said that the government will also work to ease problems facing the expansion of tourism in Iran’s northern resorts, adding that roads connecting the region to other parts of Iran will be developed in the coming years.
Iran has introduced major plans to expand its tourism sector in recent years amid efforts to diversify the economy away from crude oil exports, a policy meant to minimize the impacts of foreign sanctions on the country’s energy sector.
Experts say that Caspian Sea resorts have a huge potential to attract tourism revenues for Iran.
They say the completion of the Tehran-Shomal Highway, a difficult and costly project that needs more than $1 billion, would help turn the area into a major regional tourism hub.
Noshahr, a city located some 150 kilometers to the north of the capital Tehran, is a top destination for Iranian holiday-makers.
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