Massoud Soltanifar and Steigenberger Hotels’ Puneet Chhatwal agreed that the Germany holding company build 10 hotels within 7 or 10 future years in Iran’s different cities, the public relations office of the organization announced on Sunday.
The meeting was part of broader campaign by the Cultural Heritage Organization to invite foreign companies to contribute to Iran’s tourism and hoteling infrastructure. Mr. Chhatwal is the company’s CEO who along with his group of advisers for the Middle East is visiting Iran. Iran’s private sector enterprises also attended the meeting as well where Mr. Saeid Shirkavand, Soltanifar’s deputy for Planning and Investment participated.
“We have plans to build 4-and 5-stars and to improve our existing 3-star hotels; we predict to add 25 such hotels [4- and 5-star] by the next decade; the private sector has already been working on the project,” he told the meeting.
“Currently, the private sector has underway building of 170 high-quality hotels; Turkish hotel builders also will contribute to this construction rush soon through an MoU with country’s tourism officials, where they will build 10 5-star hotels; investors from Arab countries are building 3 hotels in Mashhad,” he detailed. “During the next three months we will hold joint sessions with world’s giants in hoteling and tourism. The government welcomes influx of foreign investments in this sector and our domestic companies would contribute to foreigners’ efforts as coordinating bodies.”
“An MoU between the Organization and InterCity Group will contribute to preparing a roadmap,” Soltanifar added
Mr. Chhatwal, for his part, believed that Iran had been taking serious steps in the road to developing its tourism infrastructures; “our experts have visited four times during six months Iran’s metropolitan centers of tourism namely Isfahan, Tehran, Shiraz, and other cities to catch a glimpse of general tourist market; as a company of 70 years of experience in hoteling, we will provide Iran with our experiences to contribute to development of tourism,” he said. “In a highly instable Middle East, Iran is an island of stability and a paradise of investors, which provides for investors the best option in every aspect.”
Mr. Chhatwal described the agreement and discussions as constructive; “there is excellent grounds and shared view of the situation German and Iranian sides in working with the project; currently we are looking for proper Iranian partner to launch hotel building projects,” he concluded.
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